‘How can we guarantee the sickest are seen?’ Over 1,300 wait 24 hours in Letterkenny ED

Over 1,300 people had to wait over 24 hours in the emergency department of Letterkenny University Hospital before being either admitted to the facility or discharged.

A fifth of the close-to-40,000 patients who presented to the hospital’s ED in the first nine months of 2025 had to wait for over half-an-hour to be triaged. 

The issue was raised by Donegal County Councillor Declan Meehan at the latest Regional Health Forum West meeting.

The Independent councillor sought figures for wait times in the emergency departments across the region.

It was revealed that 20,154 patients were triaged within 15 minutes of attending the ED at Letterkenny University Hospital, but 8,059 had to wait for more than half-an-hour.

“Those are very high numbers,” Councillor Meehan said. “I am conscious that there may well be category two patients in that who are very unwell: sepsis patients who need antibiotics; and stroke patients who also need quick care.

“In a lot of instances, when people present to the emergency department the clock is ticking.”

There were a total of 1,359 people who had to wait more than 24 hours after their initial presentation to the ED before being either discharged or admitted. There were 27,974 admitted or discharged within nine hours and 20,846 who were admitted or discharged within six hours of presentation.

Councillor Meehan asked if it was a staffing issue that means people are not being seen within the recommended time or if it was a space issue.

“How can we guarantee that the sickest are being seen?” he asked.

Dermot Monaghan, the Integrated Healthcare Area Manager for Donegal, told the meeting that 95-96% of people were seen within 24 hours, leaving 4%.

“That is a small number,” Mr Monaghan said “The pressure on emergency departments is defined by a number of factors like the current status of disease in the community, the number of people presenting and the number of staff.

“In most cases, the emergency department is the first call on priority for staffing. Usually, the volume causes the problem for the wait times, but also the availability of diagnostics to help with the triage process.”

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Ann Cosgrove, the Interim CEO of the Saolta University Health Care Group, said that volume is the usual reason for impacting the time to triage.

“There is a process to augment triage staffing when it gets really busy,” she said.

Ms Cosgrove told members that the 24-hour figures are being “monitored really closely” and added: “We are looking at that all of the time and we are following up with sites to try to eliminate anyone waiting for over 24 hours, but to absolutely make sure that they are a priority in terms of getting to a bed.”