No respite as Trolley bed numbers remain high at LUH and SUH

68 admitted patients are waiting for beds this morning, at the two north west acute hospitals in Letterkenny and Sligo, according to today’s INMO Trolley Watch.

According to the INMO ranking, not the HSE's, this means that Letterkenny (2nd) and Sligo (4th) were ranked in the top four along with hospitals in Limerick (1st) and Cork (3rd) for patients waiting for beds in hospital in the north west.

At Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) ten patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 35 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

At Sligo University Hospital (SUH) 15 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while eight are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

Nationally, 331 admitted patients are waiting for beds this morning, according to today’s INMO Trolley Watch. 259 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 72 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.

These figures are disputed by the HSE TrolleyGar figures which only acknowledge people waiting in trolley beds in the country's Emergency Departments, as part of their daily listings.

At LUH, they say that 12 patients are waiting on beds as of 8am, with one patient waiting longer than nine hours. 

At SUH, they say that 17 patients are waiting on beds as of 8am, with eleven patients waiting longer than nine hours to get a proper bed.

Six of the Sligo patients have been waiting longer than 24 hours for a bed. 

Today, the HSE said that nationally, their own figures a 86.79% increase "in trolley waiters versus last year".

Regarding the difference between the INMO trolley figures and the TrolleyGAR figures, this is because, they say, the INMO counts patients waiting for beds in inappropriate locations throughout the hospital and the HSE’s count refers to patients waiting for beds in the Emergency Department only.