SEVENTEEN patients aged 75 or older were left waiting for more than 24 hours to be seen in the Emergency Department in Letterkenny University last year.
Figures from the Health Service Executive show that more than 1,200 people over 75 have experienced a wait time of more than 24 hours in a hospital emergency department in the Saolta Group in 2017.
It comes as the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation’s latest trolley watch figures show record levels of overcrowding.
Councillor Gerry Crawford said the figures highlight the pressure that frontline staff are under on a daily basis.
“It’s difficult to accept that Galway University Hospital – which is called a Centre of Excellence – had more than one thousand people over 75 left waiting for more than 24 hours in the Emergency Department last year. Surely that’s a contradiction. How can it call itself a centre of excellence?” Cllr Crawford asked.
In 2017 the following number of patients aged 75 years or older waited for more than 24 hours in the Emergency Departments across the Saolta Group: Sligo (3 patients), Galway (1075), Letterkenny (17), Portiuncla (5) and Mayo (18 patients).
In total 28,883 patients aged 75 year or older attended the Emergency Departments in the Saolta Group in 2017.
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