The Emergency Department at Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) is extremely busy with high numbers of people attending the department who need to be admitted to hospital for ongoing treatment.
Over the last three days 411 people attended the Emergency Department in LUH.
Currently there are 99 people in the ED and 34 patients awaiting a bed. There are a high number of delayed discharges impacting on bed availability.
The hospital is advising that patients who attend ED for routine and non-urgent treatment will experience very long waiting times.
The hospital is also managing separate outbreaks of Norovirus and COVID-19 and visiting restrictions will be in place in the impacted wards.
A number of elective procedures have been cancelled for tomorrow with time critical surgeries going ahead. All patients are being advised if their appointment is being rescheduled.
All available beds in the hospital are in use. Patients are facing long waiting times to be admitted from the Emergency Department to a bed on a ward. Every effort is being made to discharge patients who are ready to go home so that beds will become available for patients who need to be admitted, at the earliest opportunity.
As always, people who do require emergency care are encouraged to attend EDs where they will be prioritised.
The hospital acknowledges that these delays are very difficult for patients and their families and apologises for the inconvenience and distress these delays cause.
The hospital is committed to treating everyone who presents at the Emergency Department; 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.
We continue to request that people only attend the Emergency Department at the hospital if it is an emergency situation. We ask that people attend their GP or out of hours service in the first instance if at all possible.
All visitors to the hospital will be required to practice good hand hygiene and use hand gel regularly, face masks are available for use throughout the hospital.
Keeping up to date with your vaccines is the most important thing you can do to avoid serious illness from flu and COVID-19. Find out more here.
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