Letterkenny the seventh most overcrowded hospital in Ireland today

Letterkenny University Hospital is tied with Naas General Hospital as the seventh-worst in the country for overcrowding today, with 22 people on trolleys.

Some 458 patients across the country are being treated on trolleys, chairs or other inappropriate bed spaces today. A total of 155 patients are on trolleys in the west and north-west.

University Hospital Limerick has the most patients on trolleys today at 90, followed by University Hospital Galway at 56 and Sligo University Hospital at 50.

Cork University Hospital has 33 patients on trolleys today, Mayo University Hospital has 26 and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin has 23.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called for urgent action to be taken to radically reduce the number of patients on trolleys in the west and north-west. The call comes on World Patient Safety Day. 

INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations for the Western Region, Colm Porter said: “The number of patients being treated on trolleys in the west over the last month has been alarming. It is becoming increasingly unsafe for patients and nursing staff alike.

“Nurses and midwives in University Hospital Galway, Mayo University Hospital, Sligo University Hospital and Letterkenny University Hospital are facing into yet another winter where they are going to be left in impossible and often dangerous care environments. We know that overcrowding of this nature has significant impacts on the long-term health outcomes of any patient that spends more than six hours on a trolley. 

“HSE West and North-West must outline precisely how they are going to radically reduce persistent and dangerous overcrowding in the region. Our members are reporting that significant overcrowding coupled with unmet recruitment and retention targets are making it impossible to provide safe care to those who need it most.

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“All barriers to providing safe care in the west must be removed. The HSE must listen to their frontline staff when they advise of these high risk and dangerous situations arising from inadequate staffing and inappropriate working environments.”