Highest number of patients in country waiting on hospital beds is at Letterkenny University Hospital - INMO

Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) has the highest number of patients in the country waiting on trolley beds, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

However the figure on the HSE's TrolleyGar system suggests that eleven admitted patients are waiting on beds at LUH.

49 admitted patients are waiting for beds this morning at LUH, according to today’s INMO Trolley Watch. 11 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 38 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

Letterkenny is followed by University Hospital Limerick (43 patients) and Mercy University Hospital Cork with 21 patients.

Nationally, 273 admitted patients are waiting for beds this morning. 213 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 60 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

However according to the HSE's TrolleyGar system, they say that 11 patients are waiting on beds at the hospital as of 8am this morning and just one patient has been waiting on a bed for more than nine hours.

The HSE say that the other patients being cared for are located in "escalation spaces" - these are beds on wards – in the hospital. 

Over recent times, the Saolta Group which operate the hospital and others along the western seaboard acknowledged that delays for patients waiting to be admitted from the ED are very difficult for patients and their families and apologised for the inconvenience and distress these delays cause.