Critics fear the health service is on its knees as latest figures from both the HSE and the INMO show 2022 was the worst year on record for overcrowding.
The Health Service Executive said today's trolley numbers in hospital emergency departments had soared to more than double – as high as 108% more than last year.
The Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation warned it will only get worse and claimed the crisis is putting patients’ lives in danger.
An INMO spokesperson said: “This is the worst year for hospital overcrowding on record.”
The union revealed that 11,842 patients were admitted to hospital without a bed in December, according to its figures.
In total, some 121,318 patients, including 2,777 children, went without a bed in hospitals throughout this year, claims the nurses’ union.
The HSE also released its own figures to show that the rate of overcrowding has doubled in the past year.
Some 427 patients were waiting for a trolley this morning, according to the HSE’s own Trolley Gar figures - which is 108% higher than the same day last year.
But the INMO claimed the figure was 143 higher, with 570 waiting for a bed.
The INMO warned that this level of overcrowding at this time of year is unprecedented.
It said hospital staff are already stretched before the traditional surge in the new year amid a triple assault from soaring respiratory infections like flu, RSV, Covid-19 and other illnesses.
There were 670 Covid-19 patients in hospital today, compared with 723 on Thursday, a drop of 53 cases.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha warned that overcrowding is putting lives at risk.
She said: “Our members have spent this year working in a constant state of crisis.
“Nurses are unfortunately ending this year how they started it – by firefighting intolerable overcrowding, coupled with highly transmissible viruses and infections.
“INMO members in triage and emergency departments in Ireland’s busiest hospitals are highlighting how the conditions are compromising patient safety.
“Some 570 patients were without a bed in Irish hospitals today.
“We know from experience that in the first weeks of January, trolley figures have the potential to nearly double.
“The State cannot walk into the next week unprepared for what could be a severe overcrowding crisis.
“We have had silent acceptance from Government and the HSE on this type of overcrowding for far too long.
“The HSE has acknowledged that things are going to get worse in our hospitals before they get better.
“But it has not outlined what precise supports will be made available to our members in the coming days and weeks ahead.
“The HSE has a duty as an employer and as a service provider to take the necessary steps to scale up capacity.
“The current state of our health system is extremely concerning.
“The INMO has called for the HSE to have a realistic plan. We cannot allow a drift into this dangerous situation emerging across the country.”
The INMO’s figures showed that the worst affected hospitals were University Hospital Limerick with 84 patients waiting, Cork University Hospital with 73; Letterkenny University Hospital with 61, and St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin with 39.
The top five most overcrowded hospitals in December included University Hospital Limerick (1,528 patients), Cork University Hospital (1,355), Letterkenny University Hospital (834), University Hospital Galway (767), and Sligo University Hospital (685).
The top five most overcrowded hospitals across the entire year were University Hospital Limerick (18,028 patients), Cork University Hospital (12,439), University Hospital Galway (10,150), Sligo University Hospital (8,136), and St Vincent’s University Hospital (7,513).
It was as recently as December 19 that the INMO revealed that hospital overcrowding figures had soared to 760 – the highest level than at any point since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Politicians like Sinn Fein’s health spokesperson, David Cullinane TD, claimed the figure was a “symptom of everything going wrong at the same time”.
The HSE warned hospitals in October to ensure there is "robust" planning to manage high trolley numbers this winter due to a surge in illnesses, including Covid-19, the flu, and RSV.
HSE trolley figures cover patients who are said by doctors to need admission to hospital but who are in the emergency unit and waiting for a bed on a ward.
But the INMO also counts the patients who have been moved out of the emergency department and onto a ward, but who are still on a trolley.
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