Posted online: May 30th, 2008

By Elaine McFadden
elaine@letterkennypost.com
The tender process for the construction of the new A&E unit at Letterkenny General Hospital has begun this week, and not a moment too soon it seems, as 14 people were being treated on trolleys at the present unit yesterday, Wednesday.
On Monday of this week, there were no reported trolley patients, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation daily ‘Trolley Watch’.
On Tuesday however, the reported number of patients on trolleys rose to five, while yesterday, Wednesday, the number had almost tripled, to 14 patients being treated on trolleys at the unit.
Speaking to the Letterkenny Post today, Thursday, Hospital Manager Sean Murphy said that the week has just been an extremely busy one.
“A combination of factors has lead to this week’s busy spell,” Sean commented.
“Today is nothing like yesterday and there are no patients on trolleys but the week has been an extremely busy one, with a number of fracture patients, urgent elective surgical patients and a number of quite ill patients at the unit. The patient numbers just haven’t been overturning as they normally would.
“The road accidents contributed to this but we always have busy days and peaks in activity,” he said.
Sean went on to commend the staff at the Hospital who dealt so well with what he called a tragic challenging week and also said this need for a new unit at the hospital is now evident.
“We have an extremely small Emergency Department and the 10th busiest in the county,” he said.
“The new unit will provide the extra space we need and it will be purpose built to deal with what we desperately need, including eight treatment cubicles, an x-ray room, 11 medical beds, and four resuscitation units.
“We would hope the contract will be awarded by the end of September and work will then begin on site,” Sean concluded.