Almost 900 were treated without a bed in Letterkenny University Hospital in January

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said 898 were treated without a bed in Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) in January, according to their most recent report.

LUH is the fifth-most overcrowded hospital in the country, behind University Hospital Limerick on 1,991; University Hospital Galway with 1,356; Cork University Hospital, with a total of 1,026 and the 995 at Sligo University Hospital.

The union is stating that in addition to the high numbers of patients on trolleys nationally - a figure of over 13,000 - they have raised concerns with the HSE about the continuous use of so-called surge capacity, which they say involves additional bed capacity for which no additional staffing is allocated.

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INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: “Our members are reporting long waits for patients, high numbers of patients on wards, and additional surge capacity being introduced across hospitals to accommodate additional need.

“The pressure placed on existing staff is already enormous when they are caring for 13,000 patients in additional inappropriate spaces in one month. However, the use of unstaffed surge beds disguises the true scale of the overcrowding problem.

“There is a crisis in acute hospital capacity which is being made worse by a failure to appropriately resource community services. These services should be relieving pressure on hospitals and allowing patients to seek appropriate care in other settings, but they simply have not been adequately funded or staffed, and this has an effect across the entire health service.

“Staffing and reversing the effects of the HSE’s Pay and Numbers strategy, are key to addressing this crisis. The system and our members are completely overwhelmed, and the solution has to start with staffing if we are to improve working conditions for our members and ensure safe and dignified care for anyone attending our hospitals.”