Sligo and Letterkenny university hospitals were among the most overcrowded in the country for the first month of 2022.
According to an Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation analysis, 817 patients waited for a bed in Letterkenny and 526 waited in Sligo.
It was the worst monthly overcrowding figures for both hospitals since 2006.
Although the overcrowding figures were high last month for both Letterkenny and Sligo hospitals, Letterkenny was the second most overcrowded hospital in the country.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha says it’s unacceptable that chronic overcrowding is allowed to continue while COVID is still rampant in many hospitals.
She says it is only the first month of the year yet overcrowding records have been broken with the highest levels of January overcrowding since the INMO began Trolleywatch in 2006 seen in a number of hospitals including Letterkenny and Sligo.
The INMO is calling for the HSE to request a curtailment of elective surgeries until the end of February as well as bespoke plans for hospitals where chronic overcrowding is a persistent feature of the hospital environment.
Today, there are 39 patients waiting for beds in Letterkenny University Hospital and 23 in Sligo University Hospital. Fourteen of those in Sligo are in the emergency department.
