An emergency situation was declared at Letterkenny General Hospital tonight after torrential rain on Friday evening.
Parts of the hospital were flooded, and visitors are being asked to stay away from the hospital until tomorrow at least.
There has been a significant amount of damage and at least four wards are out of action.
Letterkenny General Hospital manager, Sean Murphy described the current situation at the hospital:
The HSE has also released a statement:
An emergency situation has been declared at Letterkenny GeneralHospital due to flooding of a significant section of the hospital, including the Emergency Department, Radiology Department, Outpatients Department, Pathology and Medical Records Departments, several wards and kitchens. The Emergency Department has been temporarily relocated to the day surgery area which is not used after 6.00 or over the weekend.
11 patients from the ED have been moved to the Day Surgery area and the emergency service continues to function. There is no risk to patients currently in the hospital. Patients who require emergency treatment can continue to access a service but the hospital is requesting that patients contact their GP out of hours service if it is not an emergency.
The Crisis Management Team has been activated to ensure that resources and facilities are made available to the local management team to address the current flooding.
The flooding occurred following torrential rainfall in parts of Donegal earlier this evening, causing a stream at the back of the hospital to become congested and flow over onto the hospital grounds and into the hospital. The local authority fire services are on site to assist and to pump the water from the department.
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