A total of 3,801 patients left the emergency department at University Hospital Galway last year without being seen – a significant increase on the 2020 figure of 1,057.
Statistics obtained by Aontú show that the number of people who did not wait to be seen in EDs in Saolta hospitals reached a record high of over 11,000 in 2022.
At Portiuncula Hospital some 1,526 patients left without being seen last year, up from 813 in 2021.
The Aontú representative for Tuam, Luke Silke says the figures are a “damning indictment on the Health Service”.
He said that these are really awful figures which highlight all the more the need for proper investment in healthcare in the county.
“We need a proper time frame on the completion of construction in the ED in Galway – at the moment it seems half hospital, half building site,” he said.
“I was recently in there myself and the atmosphere and conditions inside can only be described as chaotic – nurses are at their wits end with staffing shortages and stress.”
Silke said that it is “only a matter of time before lives are lost, or irreparably damaged”.
