Last month was the busiest August on record at St Luke’s Hospital for Carlow/Kilkenny.
The latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation show there were more than 450 people without a bed locally.
St Luke’s Hospital had the seventh most overcrowded emergency department in the country for the month of August.
There were 455 patients waiting on trolleys – which is a 25% increase on the same month last year.
Comparatively, the first trolley figures were recorded at the local hospital in 2009 and back then there were just 13 people who didn’t have a bed in August.
Nationally, it was the worst August on record with more than 9,500 people on trolleys, including 48 children.
Limerick was the worst hospital at almost 1,200, closely followed by Cork University Hospital which was also over the 1,000-patient mark.
The INMO is warning that the situation is only going to get worse as we head into winter.
