GUH was left with the highest number of patients in the country waiting on trolleys again this week – something that one Galway West TD described as particularly worrying so far ahead of the usual winter upsurge.

Deputy Mairéad Farrell said she had been contacted by a number of families, upset at seeing their elderly relatives ‘waiting for days on a trolley with all the discomfort and lack of privacy that brings’.

“When people are at their most vulnerable, they ought to have all the comfort and privacy they need,” she said.

The Sinn Féin TD was specifically referring to figures from Tuesday, when she said there were 43 patients waiting on trolleys.

“This is far higher a number than other hospitals with the next highest number being 28 in Cork University Hospital. At the same time there are five hospitals with just one person on a trolley, including Waterford,” she said.

“There are serious questions to be answered by Government who have repeatedly promised that the trolley crisis would end but this has not come to pass.

“I recall clearly when Government Ministers told us during Covid that they would finally deal with the lack of hospital beds but instead just last year we saw that the Government underfunded the Health Budget despite calls from within the HSE not to do so.

“There was also the fact that they introduced a recruitment embargo which stymied the uptake in new staff and the replacement of retiring staff,” she added.

The Galway West Deputy said that it had ‘unfortunately become far too common a sight to see high numbers on trolleys during the cold winter months and it is worrying that we already see GUH struggling to deal with the numbers presenting at the hospital in August’.

“We now need a clear plan for the next number of months to get to grips with this situation as well as the delivery of additional beds,” she said.

“In the last three years, the overcrowding alert was activated more times than any other hospital. We need the Government to urgently deliver 1,500 beds for the system to tackle overcrowding and to deliver the promised elective centre for the West,” she concluded.

Pictured: Figures…Mairéad Farrell outside UHG.