Attendances at the Emergency Department in Galway’s public hospital topped 75,000 in 2023, one of the busiest years on record.

A total of 75,596 attendances were recorded at University Hospital Galway – that’s an average of 207 people attending the Emergency Department every day last year.

Of them, some 18,514 patients were admitted to UHG, and required inpatient treatment. That equates to 25% of all attendances requiring admission.

The recent HSE West Regional Health Forum meeting was not told why the others were not admitted.

UHG was the busiest ED in the West and Northwest, and nearly as busy as Limerick, which had just over 80,000 attendance last year.

At Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe, there were 30,360 attendances at ED in 2023, up by 2% on the previous year, and almost a third more than in 2020 when patients were told to stay away due to Covid-19.

Every day on average in 2023, 83 patients attended the ED in Portiuncula.

Some 9,065 admissions were recorded in 2023 at the Ballinasloe hospital, meaning 30% of attendances were admitted.
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