350 people are dying each year as a direct result of over crowding in the country's Emergency Departments.
The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine says it is deeply disappointing that on the day of the budget a total of 438 patients were on trolleys in Ireland’s Acute Hospitals.
46 of those were waiting for admission at University Hospital Limerick.
Dr Fergal Hickey – Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Sligo University Hospital – says the problem is costing lives and creating misery.
Meanwhile, over 18.5 million euro was spent on agency staff in the UL Hospitals Group last year
Agency staff, mostly nurses and midwives, are hired on a short-term contract basis to fill roles within the health service and cost the HSE 208 million euro in 2015.
Of that, nearly 12 million was spent at University Hosptial Limerick – the third highest of any hospital in the country – with a further 1.8 million spent at Ennis General.
The amount spent on Agency Staff in this region has more than tripled since 2011, but last year did see a reduction of over 4 million euro on such spending in this region.
