OTD: Kilkenny hospital is critically overcrowded

A warning that unless ‘critical overcrowding’ in St Luke’s Hospital was relieved quickly there was a danger the whole system could break down was made at the February meeting of the South Eastern Health Board.

Although the hospital had been built to accommodate 132 beds, the number of patients had at times gone over 200, 

Overcrowding had now reached a critical position.

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A motion before the meeting calling for immediate steps to be taken to provide temporary accommodation at the hospital, ending the permanent extension of the hospital, described the present position as ‘explosive’.

Proposing the motion, Cllr Michael McGuinness said that the standards in the hospital during the past 12 months were deplorable.

“And we stand indicted,” he said.