Two children among 17 people on trolleys in Portiuncula

Seventeen admitted patients were waiting on trolleys at Portiuncula hospital in Ballinasloe this morning (Tuesday), including two children under the age of 16.

The post-February bank holiday figures were issued by the Irish Nurses and Midwives' Organisation (INMO), which said, nationally, a total of 674 patients were being treated "on a trolley, chair or in another inappropriate space" today.

In Ballinasloe, ten admitted patients were waiting for beds in the emergency department, while a further seven were on trolleys in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

At the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar, meanwhile, there were three patients on trolleys awaiting a bed this morning, with all three in the Emergency Department.