The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called for the HSE to come to this week’s Emergency Department Taskforce meeting with renewed and workable solutions to reducing overcrowding which in turn will have a positive impact on patient safety.
The call comes on World Patient Safety Day.
Over 5,210 patients, including 100 children, have been without a bed in Irish hospitals since the beginning of September.
Sligo University Hospital is currently the 4th most overcrowded hospital in the country with 737 patients for the month so far.
Letterkenny University Hospital, meanwhile accounted for 539 patients waiting on trolley beds over the duration of the month.
The INMO is also calling on the ratio of nurses to patients in Irish hospitals to be eradicated.
They say there should be 1 nurse for every 6 to 8 patients on wards, but in Ireland its often 14 to 1.
General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha says nurses face an impossible task.
