47 patients waiting for a bed in Letterkenny University Hospital this morning

There are 47 patients waiting for a bed in Letterkenny University Hospital this morning, Monday.

Out of those patients waiting on trolleys, 17 are in the Emergency Department while 30 are in wards elsewhere.

There are a total of 759 patients on trolleys in hospitals nationwide today, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO). Letterkenny is the fifth most overcrowded hospital in the country today, behind University Hospital Limerick with 125 patients on trolleys, University Hospital Galway with 75, Cork University Hospital with 63 and St Vincent’s University Hospital with 53. There are 44 patients waiting on trolleys in Sligo University Hospital.

Commenting on the TrolleyWatch figures, INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Our hospitals are incredibly busy today with patients on trolleys across most hospital sites. The Health Service Executive must confirm that it is taking all steps to ensure that the provision of safe emergency care is currently the priority in the system. With activity levels as high as they are, we assume that all non-urgent elective activity has been cancelled for the coming week.

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“As well as over 759 patients on trolleys, there are a high number of patients on so-called surge beds, according to the HSE’s own data. This is masking the true scale of overcrowding in our hospitals. Patients being treated in these unstaffed areas are often without access to basic equipment such as oxygen and suction in totally inappropriate spaces within our hospitals. 

“The HSE needs to be upfront with the public and its workforce this week and explain what measures it is taking to curb the worst of this entirely predictable overcrowding crisis, particularly in the West, North-West, Mid-West and South-West.”