Portiuncula Hospital has announced that their Emergency Department is extremely busy this morning with significant numbers of patients awaiting admission to the hospital.
Due to this increased level of activity and subsequent admissions, the Management of Portiuncula Hospital regrets that patients are experiencing significant delays in being transferred from the Emergency Department to a bed in the hospital.
The Full Capacity Protocol has been implemented and all efforts continue to be made to identify patients who are appropriate for discharge. As a consequence, a number of non-urgent elective procedures have been deferred today.
Management are encouraging the public to attend the Emergency Department only in the case of real emergencies and they should contact their GP or GP Out-of-Hours service in the first instance.
Portiuncula Hospital would like to apologise to all patients and their families for any distress caused as a result of these delays.