Emergency Department at UHG ‘exceptionally busy’

The public have been asked to think twice before heading into the Emergency Department of University Hospital Galway (UHG) as it has been exceptionally busy over the past few days.

Yesterday there were 38 patients on trolleys at ED, the second highest in the country after Limerick which had 42, according to the Trolley Watch figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

The Galway University Hospitals and Saolta University Health Care Group issued a statement yesterday urging the public  to contact their GP or GP Out of Hours services in the first instance.

“The hospital is working strenuously to ensure access to beds is carried out intensely throughout each day by the patient flow team with regular communications to senior clinical management.

“The build-up of patients in the ED awaiting admission is linked to the bed availability throughout the hospital: we have a commitment from community services that more beds will be sourced in the community so that long term care patients can be moved to more appropriate settings on an ongoing basis, resulting in more acute beds becoming available within the hospital.

“We have had a nursing staff shortage in the ED which is being addressed with a number of nursing posts being processed for appointment at the moment .”

The statement added that it was recognised that the Emergency Department building itself needed to be updated and they were progressing an application for capital funding.

Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel