Fears have been expressed that experienced and dedicated staff at Letterkenny University Hospital may leave due to what was described as ‘horrendous’ overcrowding at the Emergency Department.
The issue was highlighted at today’s meeting of the Regional Health Forum West in Galway.
Members heard how the department has experienced record numbers of patients since last week.
The chairman of the Health Forum, Donegal councillor Gerry McMonagle said he now fears that dedicated hospital staff members could decide to leave their positions because the situation has become so bad.
Cllr McMonagle said the past couple of days had been horrendous at the hospital.
He asked if there are meetings between the stakeholders involved – the GPS, the Out of Hours service, Saolta and management at LUH to find solutions.
He highlighted personal experiences of phoning a GP only to be told that either the surgery is closed or to contact the Out of Hours service. He said the experience of most people is that they end up being sent to the ED.
Tony Canavan, Executive Chairman of the Regional Health Forum said there has been an increased level of joint working between hospital and community services and general practices.
“It’s not an ED problem, it’s not even a hospital problem,” he told today’s meeting.
“It’s a whole health service problem and you will see that GPS, community services and hospital services are under very significant pressure currently.”
Referring to the high numbers using the ED at Letterkenny University Hospital, he said, “On one particular day we had 203 attendees which was a new record for attendance.
“The previous week we had 193 which in itself was a new record so we have had records broken by records in successive weeks.
“It’s on the back of that we are seeing high numbers of patients waiting on trolleys. It’s not what we want but there is a lot of work going on in the background to try and ensure that patients move as quickly through the system as they possibly can.
“I do think we are making good progress but it’s the kind of work that will take a number of years for us to start seeing real impact in terms of patient care. You have to build things now so that they can deliver over the coming years.”
Cllr McMonagle said it’s important that people know that regular contact and discussions are taking place between the health providers.
“Last night was horrendous and going by the numbers of what I have heard, it’s probably near another record-breaker,” he said.
“It’s human beings we are talking about, primarily it’s the elderly and it’s young people and it’s the staff who are at the brunt of this every day.
“My fear is that we are going to lose dedicated staff members and that’s the last thing we need.”
