Letterkenny University Hospital remains extremely busy today with long wait times at the Emergency Department

Following a very busy bank holiday weekend, the Emergency Department at Letterkenny University Hospital remains under significant pressure today.

The ED saw a record 203 attendances yesterday, Monday March 20th.

The hospital is advising that patients who attend ED for routine and non-urgent treatment will experience very long waiting times.

As always, people who do require emergency care are encouraged to attend EDs where they will be prioritised.

The high number of people attending who need to be admitted for ongoing treatment means that there is pressure on bed availability. This is resulting in significant delays being experienced by patients in the Emergency Department who are waiting for a bed to become available on a ward. As of 8am this morning there were 23 patients on trolleys in ED awaiting admission to in-patient beds.

All available beds are in use. Every effort is being made to discharge patients who are ready to go home so that beds will become available for patients who need to be admitted, at the earliest opportunity.

Due to the pressures on the site and the lack of bed capacity, the hospital is postponing a number of elective day case and inpatient adult procedures. Urgent, time sensitive cases are being prioritised. Patients are being contacted directly if their procedure is being postponed.

Outpatient appointments are proceeding as usual and people should come to their appointments unless advised otherwise. However, anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19 or is a contact of someone with COVID-19 should not come to their appointment and should reschedule by contacting the number on their appointment letter.

The hospital acknowledges that these delays are very difficult for patients and their families and apologises for the inconvenience and distress these delays cause.

We continue to request that people consider other options for non-emergency care such as Out of Hours GP and pharmacies before attending an ED.

Notes
The HSE publishes a daily report of the number of patients awaiting admission to an inpatient hospital bed. TrolleyGAR data is available here: http://137.191.241.85/ed/