How does St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny match up to other Irish hospitals?

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have reported that 63 people went without a bed in July in St Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny. The hospital's lowest recorded figure for the month since 2012 (55).

The statistic marks a decrease of 274 compared to the figure from this time last year (337).

Today (Wednesday), the INMO are reporting 0 patients are waiting for a bed in St Luke's General Hospital with no further patients waiting on the wards.

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Nationally, over 9,755 people, including 73 children, were treated on a trolley, chair or other inappropriate bed space in Irish hospitals in July according to the INMO.

The top five most overcrowded hospitals include; University Hospital Limerick (2255 patients), Galway University Hospital (1025 patients), Cork University Hospital (999 patients), Sligo University Hospital (851 patients) and St Vincent’s University Hospital (537 patients).

"The level of overcrowding this July has been really worrying and is an indicator for what we can expect for the remainder of 2024 unless meaningful action is taken by the HSE and individual hospital groups. The trolley figures for July are a clear indicator that the INMO’s call over the past five years for winter planning to commence immediately must now be heeded as the level of demand will only continue to increase over the coming months," INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said.

"Putting additional patients on trolleys on already busy medical and surgical wards makes safe nurse staffing impossible. The HSE must now set out what their plan is for the remainder of the year and into the beginning of 2025 to ensure that all medical and surgical wards have the correct level of nurse staffing. Putting sick patients on trolleys on already busy wards in addition to overcrowded emergency departments is an ad-hoc approach to a chronic problem that can be only be resolved by additional bed capacity coupled with appropriate nurse staffing levels," she concluded.