Almost 400 patients waiting on trolleys in Irish hospitals today (August 5) - INMO

Almost 400 admitted patients are waiting for beds in Irish hospitals this morning (August 5). 

That's according to the latest Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch, which reveals 340 patients are waiting in emergency departments nationwide with 57 in wards. 

The number of patients waiting for beds are counted by INMO members every morning at 8am, with patients often being treated on trolleys in corridors, chairs, in waiting rooms or wherever space is available. 

University Hospital Galway is by far the most overcrowded in the country today, with 60 people waiting for beds, followed by 33 people at Cork University Hospital and 43 at University Hospital Limerick. 

Just nine hospitals nationwide are not currently experiencing overcrowding. 

A total of 9,961 admitted patients went without hospital beds in June 2022, 123 of whom were children. 

Although today's figures mark a decline from yesterday's (August 4) - when 466 patients were recorded as being on trolleys - the number is higher than the same day last year, when 314 people were waiting for beds. 

It is almost double the number of people waiting on trolleys on August 5 in 2020 (210), while 238 were waiting for beds ten years prior in 2010. 

Beautmont Hospital and Connolly Hospital were the most overcrowded in the country at the time.