Almost 10,000 patients were left waiting on hospital trolleys last month, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said.

According to its latest TrolleyWatch figures, 9,869 patients were on trolleys during February, exceeding pre-pandemic levels recorded in February 2019 when 8,515 people were waiting.

The worst affected hospital last month was University Hospital Limerick, where 1,498 patients were left waiting on trolleys. This was followed by Cork University Hospital (807), Letterkenny University Hospital (766) and Galway University Hospital (731).

According to the INMO’s general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, February was “an incredibly difficult month in hospitals with consistent overcrowding in all parts of the country”.

“We are once again back in the bad old days of hospital overcrowding, with numbers of patients on trolleys now exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The INMO has been sounding the alarm on this situation for too long. Our members are sick of apologising for the state of our health service to patients who have been waiting an unacceptable amount of time to be treated,” she commented.

She emphasised that this is a country-wide problem and she insisted that bespoke plans in each individual hospital are now needed to tackle overcrowding.

“We know that if a patient is on a trolley for more than five hours it can have a significant knock-on impact on their health and indeed their mortality. State agencies such as the Department of Health, HIQA and the HSE need to step up and take decisive action. It is extremely disappointing that the HSE has not prioritised convening the Emergency Department Taskforce despite numerous requests,” Ms Ní Sheaghdha said.

The INMO will be presenting details about this issue at the Oireachtas Health Committee on March 9.