Health Officials in Donegal urge the public to stay safe this St Patrick’s Day and help protect the hospitals

Over the St Patrick’s Day long weekend, health officials in the Northwest are encouraging the public to consider all care options before attending Emergency Departments in order to protect them for patients who need urgent and emergency care.

Emergency Departments (EDs) continue to be extremely busy with high numbers of patients attending who require admission. This means that patients who attend EDs for routine and non-urgent treatment will experience very long waiting times over the coming weekend.

As always, people who do require emergency care are encouraged to attend EDs where they will be prioritised. Patients who attend EDs for routine and non-urgent treatment are being advised that they will experience very long waiting times over the coming weekend and into early next week.

It is really important that people who do require emergency care are encouraged to attend EDs where they will be prioritised. Please dial 999 or 112 for emergency care if there is concern for serious illness or injury.

We are appealing to the public to help protect our hospitals for those patients who need urgent and emergency care.

Letterkenny University Hospital regrets that patients will face significant delays and asks everyone to help our staff at this time by considering other options for non-emergency care such as Out of Hours GP and pharmacies before attending an ED.

Tony Canavan, CEO of the Saolta Group said: “Anyone who suspects they may be facing an emergency situation should of course come to the Emergency Department and they will be seen and treated. However, we would ask those who may be in a non-urgent situation to help our staff through a challenging time by looking at other healthcare options where possible.”

Dermot Monaghan, Chief Officer Community Healthcare Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo added: “If you urgently need to see a GP out of hours please contact NoWDOC on Tel:  0818 400 911.

“The NoWDOC Service, is a partnership between the GP members of Caredoc and the HSE. It provides an urgent GP family Doctor service to patients of GP members in Co Donegal and south Leitrim. The GP out-of-hours service is for patients needing urgent medical care. It is not a substitute for the Emergency Ambulance Service who are the appropriate service to deal with medical emergencies where they arise.” 

Information on how to manage common illness and advice on when to get emergency help is available from hse.ie/winter.

The HSE’s mychild website also has lots of information regarding childhood illness and viruses.