20% Increase in Demand for CUH Emergency Department
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) highlighted “out of control” hospital overcrowding that is “not normal” for this time of year.
CORK University Hospital has acknowledged a 20% increase in demand for the emergency department (ED) compared to this time last year, and said this has led to ‘a large number of patients having to endure lengthy waiting times’ in recent days.
It comes as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) highlighted “out of control” hospital overcrowding that is “not normal” for this time of year.
Eighty-nine people were on trolleys in Cork hospitals yesterday, with 74 of these in CUH, latest figures from the INMO show. Fifty-eight of these were in the ED and 16 were on a trolley in a ward or elsewhere.
CUH was the second-most overcrowded hospital in the country yesterday, after University Hospital Limerick. The two hospitals were the only two in Ireland where patients over 75 years of age had been waiting more than 24 hours to be seen — this was the case for two patients at CUH.
“The ED at CUH is currently experiencing circa 20% increase in demand compared to this time in 2023, with the last two days having been particularly busy,” a spokesperson for South South-West Hospital Group told .
Source: The Echo
