No patients on trolleys in Navan or Drogheda Hospitals

There was some welcome news for a change in the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's trolley watch figures today which showed there are no patients on trolleys in Our Lady's Hospital, Navan, or Our Lady or Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.

The news comes on the back of recent spiraling figures in hospitals nationwide. While there are no patients on trolleys in Navan or Drogheda Hospital today, nationally there were still 548 patients on trolleys. This is 59 per cent higher than the same day last year when there were 345 people on trolleys. Today Cork University Hospital had the highest number of patients on trolleys at 73.

Last month, Navan Hospital had one of the highest figures around the country with 30 people waiting on trolleys and in wards waiting for admittance. It was a situation that was mirrored around the country with the INMO describing the hospital overcrowding as an a "crisis beyond comparison".