11,842 patients were admitted to Irish hospitals without a bed in the month of December.
Figures from the The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show over 120,000 hospital patients, including 2,777 children, went without a bed in 2022.
This comes as Hospitals brace for a January surge in COVID-19, as China recently announced abandoning its Zero-COVID policy and lifting travel restrictions.
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General Secretary of the INMO, Phil Ni Sheadhaga, says this situation was entirely predictable.