Sligo University Hospital has this week been hit by the twin problems of an overcrowding crisis and an outbreak of vomiting bug.
The level of overcrowding was particularly bad on Tuesday and yesterday, Wednesday. On Tuesday there were 33 people on trolleys, the third highest number in the country that day, while yesterday morning there were 32, again one of the highest figures nationally.
The situation in Sligo was highlighted on RTE’s Morning Ireland by the consultant in charge of the Emergency Department in Sligo, Fergal Hickey.
He referred to the situation where there were ambulances lined up at the entrance and patients having to be moved in and out of cubicles as people waited to be treated.
Mr Hickey said: “We had to move patients in and out of cubicles to see another patient. It is an ordeal the patients have been forced to endure.
“It is complicated in our hospital by the fact that we have an outbreak of Norovirus (vomiting bug) so we have even fewer beds than normal. which means it is increasingly difficult to get a bed for a patient that needs one.”
For more on this story, pick up a copy of this week’s Sligo Weekender newspaper. In shops now.
