The Taoiseach has admitted that Letterkenny General Hospital will be shut for a long period of time.
The car park at Letterkenny General during the floods.
Enda Kenny was speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties having been briefed by Health Minister Dr James Reilly who had visited the badly damaged hospital earlier today.
The Fine Gael leader said the damage sustained by the hospital on Friday evening was far worse that had been anticipated.
And he admitted that the cost of fixing the damage is now expected to run into millions.
“I think you’re talking about a pretty serious emergency situation here.
“I spoke to the Minister for Health this evening who visited the hospital with personnel. He gave me a blow-by-blow account of what happened here.
“This is very substantial, records lost MRI, diagnostics, laboratory walls to be de-plastered and de-contaminated.
“This is far more serious than was first thought. It means effectively that Letterkenny is out of operation for a considerable time and that means calling on the assistance in respect of Derry, Enniskillen, Sligo and the community and there may be some other alternatives that have to be considered as well.”
Mr Kenny said the health minister will report on the full extent of what is required to fix Letterkenny shortly.
The hospital was evacuated on Friday evening after it’s new €20m A&E unit was flooded with several feet of water.
The flooding was caused after a stream at the back of the hospital became congested and flowed over into the hospital.
As well as damage to the body of the hospital, hundreds of thousands of euro of equipment including scanners and x-ray equipment was destroyed.
