Pressure mounts at Kilkenny hospital after record-breaking July overcrowding
Nationwide figures for patients treated on trolleys exceeded 10,000 for the first July on record
After a difficult July at St Luke’s General Hospital, overcrowding is continuing at the Kilkenny facility with 38 patients being treated on trolleys or in other inappropriate spaces as of Tuesday morning.
The post-bank holiday surge is unusually high for the summer months and matches a trend of increasing pressure across the country.
Over the course of July, 283 people were treated on trolleys, the highest number at St Luke’s since 2023 when 337 people were outside beds.
Nationwide, 10,394 patients were on trolleys over the month with this being the first July on record where the number has exceeded 10,000.
The pressure has reached crisis point at University Hospital Limerick where 2,172 people were treated outside of beds, well over twice the number of the next worst affected facility at University Hospital Galway with 919.
Speaking about the striking figures, General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which compiles the figures, Phil Ní Sheagdha, highlighted the unprecedented numbers for this time of year and called for increased support for overstretched workers.
“This July has been like no other for nurses and midwives working in our public health system,” she asserted. “It is hard to see how nurses and midwives can be expected to remain motivated in their roles at the moment.”
“The lack of movement on public service pay makes our members feel undervalued and unappreciated. Meanwhile they are contending with record overcrowding that was previously unimaginable in summer months.”
“The stress and excessive workload is truly relentless now, and at the end of the work day our members must figure out how to make their pay stretch further every month. At work and in their own lives, nurses and midwives are doing more with less, and it’s simply not sustainable,” she added.