Surgery deferred as pressure continues at UHG
Galway bay fm newsroom - Elective surgery has been deferred at Galway university hospitals as staff attempt to deal with an increase in patient numbers.
There's also been an outbreak of the winter vomiting virus at UHG which is adding to pressures on bed capacity.
The HSE says the A&E department is busy today because of an increase in the number of patients waiting for admission and the low number of patients expected to be finished their treatment at hospital and discharged.
UHG is also dealing with an outbreak of the winter vomiting virus and visitors are asked to only come to the hospital during official visiting hours.
The hospital is asking the public to keep the ED for emergencies only and to contact their GP in the first instance.
According to the INMO, 20 people are waiting on trollies at UHG today while another 10 are on trollies in wards.
The hospital is taking steps to deal with the situations and measures put in place include deferral of most elective surgery and visitor restrictions.
Convalescence beds are being purchased on a daily basis from private nursing homes to facilitate discharge.
Full infection control measures are also in place and UHG is working with all hospitals in the group to ensure that capacity on all sites is maximised.