St Luke’s General Hospital is appealing to those seeking medical care or assessment to consider options other than presenting at the facility.
The emergency department and acute medical assessment unit are extremely busy, management says in a statement primarily due to “high levels of patients with flu, COVID19 and other complex illnesses requiring admission”.
Added to that, is the increased pressure following the recent fire and closure of the ED at Wexford General Hospital which saw patients transferred to Kilkenny where an 18-bed ward was recently opened to cater for them.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s Trolley Watch has indicated that up to 39 people have been waiting for a bed at St Luke’s this week and hopsital management and staff, as well as the HSE, say they regret that patients are experiencing long wait times in their ED, telling KCLR “We are working as hard as we can to provide services to those patients and to support our staff”.
The HSE is appealing to people seeking medical care or assessment to consider all options before going to St Luke’s Hospital’s Emergency Department. But they add that while some patients will regrettably experience long wait times there, urgent patients will always be prioritised for treatment and care.
