Galway trolley figures hit new high

More than 8,750 patients were forced to wait on trolleys and chairs in University Hospital Galway and Portiuncula Hospital in 2018 – a figure that has jumped by almost one fifth in just two years.

Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation – which records the ‘Trolley and Ward Watch’ numbers at every public hospital in the country – show that between January and the end of December 2018, there were 7,452 patients on trolleys or chairs at UHG.

That figure is up 13.5% on 2017, when it stood at 6,563.

UHG had the third-worst trolley rate in the Republic of Ireland – behind University Hospital limerick at 11,437 and Cork UH at 9,135.

Nationally, there were 108,227 counted on trolleys in 2018 – up 9.3% on the 98,981 recorded in 2017.

In Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, there were 1,302 patients on trolleys in 2018, down 17% from 1,569 in 2017.

Overall between the two hospitals, there were 8,754 patients left on trolleys – up 7.6% from 8,132 in 2017 and up around 19% from 7,376 in 2016.

Every morning at 8am, INMO members count how many patients are waiting in the Emergency Department for a bed and how many are waiting in wards elsewhere in the hospital. The INMO Trolley Watch counts the number of patients who have been admitted to acute hospitals, but who are waiting for a free bed.

These patients are often being treated on trolleys in corridors, but they may also be on chairs, in waiting rooms, or wherever there is space.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune – on sale now.