This year was the worst for overcrowding at University Hospital Kerry since records began.
Figures from the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation show there were over 3,700 patients waiting on trolleys at UHK this year.
Over 121,000 (121,526) patients waiting for a bed in hospitals nationwide this year.
Of these, 3,775 were waiting on trolleys at University Hospital Kerry between January and December this year; that’s the highest figure since records began in 2006.
It's an increase of over 8% when compared to the previous year; in 2022 there were 3,474 patients waiting for a bed at UHK.
The figure stood at 2,409 in 2021, while there were 2,350 people without a bed in 2020 and a further 3,610 people waited on trolleys in UHK in 2019.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha, who’s from Ventry, says for the second year in a row overcrowding records have been broken.
She says over 3,450 children have been on trolleys so far this year, an increase of 24% on the previous year; she adds this is not something to celebrate and was entirely predictable.
