UHG nurses highlight hike in patients on trolleys
Nurses at University Hospital Galway (UHG) are set to stage a lunch-time protest tomorrow in response to a dramatic increase in the number of patients sleeping on trolleys overnight compared to this time last year.
Figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) yesterday show that there was an 118% increase in the number of patients on trolleys at UHG last month compared to August of last year.
The INMO Trolley and Ward Watch figures show that 319 patients overnighted on trolleys at UHG last month compared to 146 in August 2013.
INMO General Secretary Liam Doran told The Sentinel that the UHG figures were “truly shocking” and represented a clear warning that health service cuts had already gone too far.
“Every one of those patients is a person who has been forced to spend a night on a trolley,” he said. “It is a scandalous situation. We cannot talk about an economic recovery while we are facing such unacceptable pressures on our health service.”
“We have had five years of successive cuts to our health service. It’s not acceptable that so many people in Galway are lying on trolleys overnight and we need a realistic Budget for 2015. It is quite clear that the health service is under-funded.”
He said the year-on-year increase in the number of patients on trolleys at UHG was among the worst at any public hospital in the country.
While the number of patients on trolleys normally tends to decrease during the summer months, Mr Doran said the indicators were “very, very bad” ahead of the coming winter season.
“The INMO commenced counting the number of patients on trolleys, in both Emergency Departments and Wards, in 2004. To say that we are still counting ten years later is a shocking indictment of our health service and of successive Governments,” he told The Sentinel.
He has encouraged members of the public to join nurses at the demonstration against overcrowding at UHG outside the hospital gates tomorrow (Wednesday, 1 to 2pm).
“This is a significant problem for our members, but it is a huge problem for members of the public as patients are suffering. The Government must acknowledge the extent of the crisis and stop pretending that the health service can do more with less,” he added.