Nearly 10,000 patients were forced to languish on chairs, floors and trolleys last month, in what was the highest number ever recorded in August.
The Government has been slammed for creating a “12-month crisis” in Emergency Departments, as a record 9,562 patients were forced to wait without a bed last month.
This figure includes a shocking 48 children who were also left to wait for beds, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
Meanwhile, the average daily total of those waiting for beds last month was 28% higher compared with last year.
The worst affected hospital in August was University Hospital Limerick, where 1,197 people waited for beds.
At Cork University Hospital, 1,051 patients were left waiting, while 655 people waited at University Hospital Galway.
At South Tipperary General Hospital - a small hospital whose emergency department has only four beds - 597 people were left languishing, while at University Hospital Waterford, this number was 561.
These record figures during the summer months are a major cause for concern as winter approaches, INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said yesterday.
She said: “This is the tragic ongoing reality in Ireland’s health service. To see nearly 10,000 patients on trolleys is bad in itself, but this is a summer month.
“These figures signal an even more dangerous winter, when extra demands are typically placed on hospitals.”
Ms Ni Sheaghdha said the recruitment and retention crisis must be solved if patients are to get the care they deserve.
She said: “At the core of the problem is staffing, as there are well over 1,300 nursing and midwifery vacancies across the service.
“This is no time for recruitment bans. Vacancies need to be filled so that patients get the care they need. The HSE’s recruitment ban has got to go.”
Louise O’Reilly, Sinn Fein’s spokeswoman on health, said the Government’s inaction has lead to a “12-month crisis”.
Ms O’Reilly said yesterday: “Traditionally, the summer was quiet but we see that this Government has managed to create a 12-month all year round crisis within our Accident & Emergency departments.”
She said the recruitment crisis and the embargo on home help hours have greatly contributed to the current situation - adding that, behind these figures, lie stories of personal suffering.
Ms O’Reilly said: “We see the number of people - but you have to look behind the numbers as well, because every one of those is someone who has spent the night in Accident & Emergency, in inappropriate conditions, very often in pain, and they need to be in a hospital bed.
“It’s the recruitment crisis, it’s the home help crisis and the result is that people are left on trolleys and chairs, frightened. It’s not safe for staff, it’s not safe for patients and it can’t be allowed to continue.”
