January trolley patient figures at Kilkenny hospital reach highest level in three years

The number of patients treated without a bed at St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny City in the month of January reached its highest level since 2023 as units struggle to cope with increased winter demand for treatment.

Data released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) showed that 323 patients in the hospital were treated on trolleys this month. 

This is an increase of around 26% from January 2025, when 256 people were without a bed and is the highest January total since 2023, which saw 534 placed on trolleys.

As of Friday morning, 11 patients were being treated on trolleys as hospitals nationwide attempt to get on top of their busiest period of the year with over 13,000 patients being cared for outside beds across the country this month.

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The worst affected was University Hospital Limerick where 1,991 patients were on trolleys while University Hospital Galway was also overstretched with 1,356 over January.

Speaking about the figures, IMNO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Our members are reporting long waits for patients, high numbers of patients on wards and additional surge capacity being introduced across hospitals to accommodate additional need.”

“The pressure placed on existing staff is already enormous when they are caring for 13,000 patients in additional inappropriate spaces in one month. However, the use of unstaffed surge beds disguises the true scale of the overcrowding problem.”

“There is a crisis in acute hospital capacity which is being made worse by a failure to appropriately resource community services. These services should be relieving pressure on hospitals and allowing patients to seek appropriate care in other settings, but they simply have not not been adequately funded or staff, and this has an effect across the entire health service,” she concluded.

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