ICU patients admitted to Letterkenny hospital may have to be transferred to other hospitals

The chief executive of the Saolta group of hospitals says ICU patients admitted to Letterkenny University Hospital may have to be transferred to other hospitals due to the pressure on critical care capacity at the hospital.

The hospital had four Covid-19 patients in ICU on Tuesday morning out of the13 Covid-19 patients in ICU across the group, Tony Canavan said

Figures from the Health Service Executive show there are no ICU beds available at the hospital and just one general bed. The hospital is treating 17 Covid-19 patients.

“We are looking at Letterkenny very carefully because if additional patients have to be admitted then we have to make plans to try and see if they can be transferred to other hospitals,” Mr Canavan told RTÉ.

There were 165 attendances at the hospital's emergency department on Monday. He said that "is at the very high end of attendances for that hospital and that is translating into high levels of high admissions and subsequently patients waiting admission on trolleys”.

He said respiratory illness combined with Covid-19 admissions will put greater strains on hospitals.

"One of the real concerns and fears we have is as the winter progresses and as respiratory illnesses increase within the community in addition to Covid-19, we will also see a greater attendance with people with respiratory illnesses at all of our hospitals, including Letterkenny, and that will put further pressure on an already very pressurised system."

He said all the hospitals in the group are "under very significant pressure from a staffing perspective" and there are staff vacancies, particularly in nursing.

There are also staff members on "Covid related leave," he said.

Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show there were 48 patients waiting for beds at the hospital on Tuesday morning.

On Monday, Saolta said the hospital's emergency department was extremely busy with a high number of people attending which resulted in ongoing pressure on bed availability.

Many patients were experiencing long waiting times to be admitted to an acute bed in the hospital, Saolta said.

The group has appealed to the public to contact their GP during normal surgery hours or the NoWDOC GP Out of Hours service in the first instance if their health problem is not urgent.