The CEO of the Saolta group, which manages Letterkenny University Hospital, said he is very concerned about the rise in admissions at the hospital.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Tony Canavan spoke about the high admissions at the Donegal facility in recent days.
Yesterday saw 165 attendances at the emergency department in Letterkenny.
Mr Canavan said this was “at the very high end for that hospital”.
He said “One of the real concerns that we have is that as the winter progresses and as respiratory illnesses increase within the community that in addition to Covid-19 we will also see a greater attendance of people’s respiratory illness at all of our hospitals, including Letterkenny, and that will put further pressure on an already pressurised system.”
From a staffing perspective, Mr Canavan said all hospitals are under “very significant pressure”.
Letterkenny is the third most overcrowded hospital in the country with 48 people awaiting transfer to a bed there.