Sligo University Hospital was the fourth busiest hospital in the country in 2023. Over 8,000 people waited for a hospital bed in the hospital's Emergency Department over 12 months. That's just behind University Hospital Galway, where 9,026 people were on trolleys over the year.
Nationally, almost 123 thousand people were left of a hospital trolley last year. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says among them, were almost 3,500 children who were admitted to hospital without a bed. The nursing union says the health service recruitment freeze is making a bad situation worse.