Management at UHG this week issued a warning to patients attending its Emergency Department (ED) that they could expect extremely long waiting times — as they pleaded for only those requiring emergency care to attend the extremely overcrowded facility.

On Monday, more than 300 people attended at the hospital’s ED, resulting in large numbers of patients ending up on trolleys. Such is the strain being placed on UHG that the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation’s (INMO) Trolley Watch figures show its ED, for three days in the last 10, had more patients on trolleys than the infamously overcrowded ED in University Hospital Limerick.

Figures show that Tuesday this week was the worst in recent days for trolleys and overcrowding in UHG — there were 73 patients on trolleys according to the INMO, 51 of whom were still in the ED with the remainder on ‘ward trolleys’.

The HSE’s own figures showed yesterday morning (Thursday) that there were six patients in the Emergency Department who had been waiting for in excess of 24 hours to be seen.

In a statement this week, UHG management confirmed that they were suspending some elective procedures given the demand for beds within in the hospital and said they were making every effort to discharge patients who were ready to go home.

Urgent, time-sensitive elective procedures were continuing, they added, and any patients affected by the cancellations would be contacted directly if they procedure was being postponed.