Ottoline SpearmanOver 114,000 people were admitted to hospital without a bed - treated instead on a hospital trolley - in 2025, including over 1,248 children. This is according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch, which provides a daily running total of the number of patients on trolleys across Ireland's hospitals. INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Yet another year has passed with an unacceptably high number of patients being treated on trolleys, chairs and in other inappropriate bed spaces. “The continued use of trolleys and reliance on surge capacity mean that too many nurses are routinely working short-staffed. On Wednesday, the top overcrowded hospitals were University Hospital Limerick, with 22,473 patients; University Hospital Galway, with 11,630 patients; Cork University Hospital, with 10,113 patients, and Sligo University Hospital and St Vincent's University Hospital.
