INMO figures show 1,504 were awaiting hospital bed at LUH

Figures published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show over 53 thousand people were awaiting hospital beds over the course of 2020, 1,504 of them at Letterkenny University Hospital.
That’s a 280% fall on the hospital’s 2019 figure.
2020 saw 1,504 people awaiting in-patient beds at Letterkenny University Hospital over the course of the year. That compares to 5,727 in 2019.
The Covid 19 pandemic saw the figures drop substantially after March.
January and February saw 392 and 352 respectively, while April’s figure was zero.
Figuresd were in the low double digits over the early summer, but started rising again, with 188 in October, 99 in November and 128 in December.
This year’s total was the lowest since 2013’s total of 1,277.
Sligo University Hosptial was one of the six highest in the country, with 2,530 waiting this year compared to 4,967 in 2019.
The INMO says such overcrowding poses an infection control risk which the union is describing as “unacceptable”.