Only five Irish hospitals were more overcrowded than Letterkenny in 2025

Some 6,484 people were admitted to Letterkenny University Hospital without a bed in 2025.

That figure was made up from 2,250 via the Emergency Department and 4,234 elsewhere. Letterkenny is the sixth most crowded hospital in the country after University Hospital Limerick 22,473 patients; University Hospital Galway, 11,630; Cork University Hospital, 10,113 patients; Sligo University Hospital, 8,004, and St Vincent’s University Hospital, 6,692.

Nationally, 114,029 patients, including 1,248 children, were admitted to hospital without a bed in 2025 according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation TrolleyWatch.

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INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Yet another year has passed with an unacceptably high number of patients being treated on trolleys, chairs and in other inappropriate bed spaces. Nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals must not continue to shoulder public anger arising from repeated failures in planning across the health service.

“While there has been a slight reduction in the number of patients being treated in an inappropriate space in our hospitals, the reliance on surge beds, which are not properly staffed, is a cause of concern.

“There needs to be a turning point in how healthcare staffing is planned and managed, and it needs to start with an immediate filling of all funded posts while also focusing on capacity, staffing and conditions across acute and community services.

“Our members are reporting that persistent staffing gaps across the public health service are undermining their ability to deliver safe and timely care. The continued use of trolleys and reliance on surge capacity mean that too many nurses are routinely working short-staffed. In many hospitals, unfilled rosters are becoming the norm rather than the exception, creating increasingly unsafe conditions for both nurses and patients in our hospitals.

“In March healthcare unions were assured that recruitment of posts would be a priority for the HSE, it is clear that this couldn’t be further from the case as over 6,500 funded posts are still vacant. We were told barriers to recruitment would be removed, yet authority is not being delegated to allow clinical decision-makers to fill posts.”