The Emergency Department at Letterkenny University Hospital is very busy this evening.
Management say that there is on-going pressure on bed availability in the hospital and as a result patients are facing long delays being admitted from the Emergency Department to a bed on a ward.
There are currently 19 patients on trolleys in the Emergency Department waiting for a bed.
All available beds in the hospital are in use including an additional 20 escalation beds.
The hospital acknowledges that these delays are very difficult for patients and their families and apologises for the inconvenience and distress these delays cause.
People who are seriously injured or ill are assessed and treated as a priority and those who do not require urgent care may be waiting longer.
People are being urged to contact their GP during normal surgery hours or the NoWDOC GP out of hours service, in the first instance if their health problem is not an emergency.
