Extra support is urgently required at Cork University Hospital as staff struggle to cope in an unsafe working environment due to unprecedented levels of overcrowding.
That's according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation who say they have been sounding the alarm bells in relation to overcrowding at CUH since the summer
New figures show over 10,000 patients have been left waiting on trolleys or seats at the hospital so far this year, which is the highest ever figure for this point in the year.
Today it's the second most overcrowded hospital in the country, with 58 people being treated on trolleys at the hospitals ED.
The INMO say it's time the Government stepped in to deal with this unsafe, unacceptable and inhumane situation.
Colm Porter of the INMO in Cork told RedFM News that following a HIQA report into the ED in CUH, there were calls for the urgent provision of extra supports for the hospital:
"Need for extra nurses, there's a need for diagnostics to be available 24/7 So people aren't in a situation where they're waiting for that kind of care. Discharging in a timely fashion, be that into the private hospital system or into the community. These are all kinds of things that need to happen, and they need to happen as a matter of urgency, you know we have been kind of ringing the alarm bells since, since the summer, and because of the winter level of pressure that we experienced in there."
