SIPTU says the overcrowding crisis is leading to ambulance service chaos.
Members working a 12-hour shift in an ambulance base in County Clare were dispatched on a 901km roundtrip to Clonmel and back to Youghal – due to local resources being held up in Tipperary.
SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell said – they are demanding that the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, the Department of Health and the HSE take immediate and effective action – to relieve pressure being experienced by ambulance professionals across the country.
Meanwhile, University Hospital Limerick, which serves the north of the county has broken the daily record for an individual hospital with 92 patients waiting on trolleys today.
With 40 without a bed in South Tipp General in Clonmel and one in Nenagh General Hospital – there are a total of 133 people without a bed in hospitals serving County Tipperary today.
Cork University Hospital is the second busiest with 56 people without beds.
According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, there are a total of 760 patients going without beds in Ireland’s hospitals today, the worst-ever figure since records began. The previous worst-ever day was 12 March 2018 during the – Beast from the East – when 714 patients went without beds.
Mary Fogarty is assistant director with the INMO and said the winter plan has failed.
