The heatwave of recent weeks sparked a summer trolley crisis in Irish hospitals, with more than 10,000 patients without a bed in July for the first time since records began.

Doctors have told how patients with heatstroke, severe sunburn, dehydration and fainting – many of whom were unable to obtain a GP’s help – poured into emergency departments which were already at bursting point.

New figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) show that 10,394 patients were treated on a trolley or in an inappropriate space last month – the first time the figure has breached 10,000 in July in 20 years of record keeping.

Meanwhile, nurses have called for the HSE to take ‘exceptional measures’ to deal with overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick.

Heading into the bank holiday weekend, the country’s most overcrowded hospital has advised people to make alternative arrangements rather than attend their local emergency department.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha, INMO general secretary, said: ‘This July has been like no other for nurses and midwives working in our public health system.

‘We are now heading into a summer bank holiday weekend where one major hospital, University Hospital Limerick, has advised for people to seek other care pathways rather than attend their local emergency department.

‘The fact that these type of announcements are being made in the middle of summer is a huge red flag warning for what’s to come in winter.’

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said that at UHL the level of overcrowding must be considered a major incident, and the HSE must deploy all resources necessary.

Dr Ilona Duffy, a GP in Monaghan, said discharge reports sent to her practice revealed the toll the heatwave had taken.

‘We are getting reports of people feeling weak and faint, having a collapse, sunburn, sunstroke. They have probably played a role in the figures,’ she said.

‘Young people, despite all the warnings to protect themselves in the sun, were going in with severe sunstroke and sunburn, and we are still picking up the effects in the form of leg cramps and feeling weak.’

However, Dr Duffy said the problem was exacerbated by the estimated 10% of the population being unable to register with a GP, leaving them with fewer options to seek care outside of a hospital.

Dr Yvonne Williams, a GP in Shannon, Co. Clare, said there had been a surge in emergency department admissions at UHL following on from the heatwave.

‘A lot of our older patients with chronic conditions haven’t coped well with the recent heat and I think that’s probably having a knock-on effect,’ she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Dr Williams said the emergency department in UHL was suffering from high areas of deprivation in the surrounding region, and decades of ‘massive under-resourcing’.

Prof. Mick Molloy, chair of the Consultants’ Committee of the Irish Medical Organisation, said the heatwave was an ‘added factor’ on top of the preexisting issue of not enough beds for an ageing and growing population.

In 2003, he noted, there were 11,900 beds nationally, and the system was already struggling. Since then, with 1.5million extra people in the country, only 400 extra beds have been added to that total, he said.

‘If beds have not kept up with the population, you will have the scenario of people waiting on trolleys, on chairs and even on floors,’ Prof. Molloy said.

He continued: ‘The reason our EDs become overcrowded in the first place is because there are not enough available beds in hospitals to which patients can be transferred, along with doctors to treat them – a problem that is particularly acute in UHL.’

In total, 10,394 patients were treated on a trolley or in an inappropriate space in July, according to the INMO.

It said that 2,172 of these patients were in UHL – by far the largest cohort in any one hospital in the country. The next closest was University Hospital Galway, with 919.

In a statement, HSE Mid-West said UHL is experiencing sustained high demand in its emergency department, with attendances significantly above expected levels in recent days.

It apologised to those experiencing long wait times, and asked people who were not experiencing a life-threatening emergency to consider alternative care options including GPs, out of hours GPs, pharmacies and injury units.