Tipperary patients among worst hit as trolley count hits 161

Hospitals serving the Tipperary catchment area are among the worst hit for numbers on trolleys this Wednesday, March 20.

According to Trolley Watch there is a total of 429 waiting on trolleys nationwide, with 161 in Tipperary and surrounding counties.

University Hospital Limerick shares the highest number, 35, with Cork University Hospital.

The numbers on trolleys at South Tipperary General Hospital stood at 22 this lunchtime.

In other hospitals, there were 24 on trolleys in Waterford; 19 in Portiuncla, Ballinasloe; 10 in Tullamore; eight in Portlaoise and eight in Kilkenny.

The figures for Limerick come at a time when the hospital has decided to close a 17-bed ward, a decision that was criticised this Wednesday by Nenagh's Cllr Seamus Morris.

"The decision by hospital management to close a 17-bed  medical ward in UHL is beyond belief," he said.

Cllr Morris pointed out that the hospital, which serves the people of the Mid West, recorded a record in Irish trolley count history with 76 people without a bed.

"Today, (March 20) I again have asked the fire chief in Limerick to inspect the hospital for health and safety reasons because no hospital can sustain such level of trolleys on corridors safely," he said.

The Independent Tipperary councillor said that last January he had asked Nenagh Municipal District Council to ask University Hospital Limerick CEO Prof Collette Cowan to reopen the A&Es in  Nenagh and Ennis, "but the waffle we got back was about the winter plan which would resolve the overcrowding situation".