The number of patients waiting for a hospital bed locally continues to rise.
23 are waiting for beds at St Luke’s General for Carlow and Kilkenny according to the INMO.
Over 100,000 have been on trolleys so far this year across the country with 479 patients waiting for beds today.
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “The INMO Executive Council met on Tuesday and have reinforced the position that safe staffing underpinned by legislation is urgently required in order to protect patients no matter where they are in the system.”
She adds “The INMO will now commence a process of engagement with its members to ensure any instances where they are compelled to deviate from safe practice are resisted to ensure they are not being asked to provide ever increasing services with a reduced workforce.”
She continues “Behind the trolley figures that the INMO publishes every day are extremely vulnerable patients being treated in undignified and dangerous conditions. Over 100,000 people have gone without a bed this year and it isn’t even the end of October, this was entirely predictable. It is shocking that the necessary measures have not been taken by the HSE and individual hospital groups to alleviate this level of overcrowding.”
