Letterkenny University Hospital is the most overcrowded in Ireland today with 40 people awaiting admission there this morning.
Eleven people were waiting on trolleys in its Emergency Department while a further 29 were waiting on wards.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is calling on the HSE to publish and implement a Plan B for dealing with the capacity crisis that is escalating within public acute hospital system.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said:
“We are yet again seeing high numbers presenting to Emergency Departments across the country with 287 patients on trolleys today.
“From experience we know that if there are 287 patients for whom there is no bed in a hospital on December 30th, we know that figure will be tripled in early January. It is time now to scale back all activity within our public hospital system to emergency activity only.
“Our public health service is too small to try provide emergency care, COVID care and carry out elective treatments. Urgent elective work must be prioritised through the private hospital system.
“We know from the INMO Trolley Watch figures that Regional Hospital Mullingar, Letterkenny University Hospital, Portiuncula University Hospital have been acting in crisis mode in the last 48 hours because of high numbers of people presenting to their respective emergency departments.
Unless an urgent and workable plan is produced by the HSE, we will continue to see incidents like this well into January and February.
Letterkenny University Hospital issued a statement yesterday advising that visiting is restricted.
Due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the community, Saolta says access to visitors is now being limited to one person, per patient for 15 minutes per day.
The hospital is also currently dealing with a Covid-19 outbreak.
Visits to Letterkenny University Hospital must be pre-arranged by family members / visitors, who should contact the relevant ward or unit in advance.
