Early history

The hospital has its origins in the Letterkenny Union Workhouse and Infirmary which was designed by George Wilkinson and opened in Kilmacrennan Road in 1844.^[16] This developed into the Letterkenny District Hospital.^[16] Letterkenny General Hospital was built on the same site and was opened by Seán MacEntee, the Tánaiste, in July 1961.^[17] A new multi-storey hospital block was built in 1981.^[18] Most of the facilities are housed in this building but some, such as the dental, ophthalmic and some mental health facilities, are housed across the road in St Conal's Hospital.^[19]

Treatment of Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney (recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature) and his wife were driven here after Heaney had a stroke in 2006. Bill Clinton - in Ireland at the time for 2006 Ryder Cup in County Kildare (just west of Dublin and many hours south of Letterkenny) - heard about Heaney's 'episode', as Heaney himself described it. "The next thing, [Clinton] put a call to the hospital, and said he was on his way. He strode into the ward like a kind of god". Heaney noted that Clinton took the time to introduce himself to and shake the hands of "my fellow sufferers, four or five men much more stricken than I was", who shared his ward, then Clinton "went round all the wards and gave the whole hospital a terrific boost. We had about 25 minutes with him, and talked about Ulysses Grant's memoirs, which he was reading." Clinton departed, heading straight to the airport.^[20][21]

Axe and knife incidents

On 14 July 2009, a gang of men entered the hospital, one of them brandishing an axe. He subsequently made his way to floor E where he barricaded himself into the staff room. Areas of the hospital were sealed off during the incident to prevent further movement. The man was later talked out by family members and staff and surrendered the axe. He was making his way to the intensive care unit to visit the husband of a deceased member of his family. He had taken a drug overdose after his wife died in a car crash. Another man entered the intensive care unit dressed as a priest with a knife hidden under his garments. He left the scene peacefully.^[22][23]

New emergency department

In November 2008, it was confirmed that work would begin on a new emergency department and medical wards at the hospital, of about 6,600 square metres. Construction began in January 2009, at a cost of approximately €22 million, and was expected to be completed in late 2010. The new facility was to provide three medical floors consisting of 72 beds, two-thirds of which were to be provided in single rooms. The new emergency department would have 19 treatment spaces, incorporate an 11-bed medical assessment unit and an x-ray room. The mortuary chapel would be moved from its current position to a new location during construction.^[24] Health Minister James Reilly finally opened the new unit in 2013.^[25]

Pandemic

In January 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, delays at the hospital featured in international news when it was described as "briefly overwhelmed".^[26][27]

2013 flooding

Following a heatwave across Ireland on 26 July 2013,^[28] a thunderstorm brought heavy rain, causing a nearby river to burst its banks. The resulting flood "completely destroyed" the new emergency department, swept much of the rest of the hospital away and led to the evacuation of patients.^[29] A state of emergency was declared.^[30] The flooding also destroyed the radiology department, outpatient department, pathology and medical records departments, kitchens and numerous wards.^[31]

Fire crews pumped out the floodwaters and off-duty staff rushed back to the hospital to help patients to safety and to try to save any medical files that had been untouched by the raw sewage that had flooded the hospital.^[32] Blame for the scale of the damage was laid on cutbacks at Donegal County Council which led to drains outside the hospital going uncleaned for seven months. As a result, the floodwaters had nowhere to go.^[33]

Hospital manager Sean Murphy said: "The speed with which it happened was incredible. We had an hour that changed the face of the hospital." All prospective patients were directed to hospitals in Sligo and Derry, which put extra strain on those hospitals, which were already struggling to cope with patients from their own counties.^[34][35]

In August 2013, nurses at the hospital were told they would have to travel to Derry, across the border in Northern Ireland, to help deal with the overflow of patients there. This created further bureaucratic problems as they were required to be registered to work in the United Kingdom.^[36] Also that month, the mobile kitchens used during the 39th G8 summit at Lough Erne were brought to the hospital, to deal with the problems arising from the destruction of the hospital's kitchens.^[37] All catering until then was delivered to the hospital by nearby hotels and restaurants.^[33]

As a result of the disaster, Ireland's fourth largest county was left without a functioning emergency department, with the nearest one in the state being two counties away in Sligo General Hospital. Seriously ill inhabitants were evacuated from the county by the coastguard helicopter, which was put on 24-hour standby.^[37] Parts of the hospital were expected to have to be demolished, further increasing the final cost of repairing the damaged hospital.^[37]

€40 million worth of damage was done to the hospital and it re-opened after nine months, in March 2014.^[13][38]