Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher has questioned the Minister for Health on the length and duration of the waiting lists at Letterkenny University Hospital for Day patients, Inpatients and Outpatients appointments.
Figures just released show that over 14,000 people are waiting to be seen or assessed by medical staff across the various Departments of the hospital.
They also showed that more than 2,957 are waiting for over 12 months to be seen.
“These figures are alarming and unfortunately are steadily growing in number,” said Deputy Gallagher.
He made his comments as Fianna Fáil put forward a Private Members Motion on Hospital waiting lists.
Pat the Cope added it’s deplorable that overcrowding continues to be experienced in our Hospital Emergency Departments, and record numbers of patients are waiting on trolleys as we have witnessed almost on a daily basis in Letterkenny since the beginning of 2017.
He said “I am also concerned that the trends for waiting lists across the majority of the Departments within the Hospital is showing increasing waiting times and larger number of people waiting to be seen, this is despite numerous attempts to get the Government and the Minister for Health to address the matter.
“I believe the Government are in denial of the seriousness of the problems facing Letterkenny University Hospital at present, it is evident that additional resources, extra staff and a commitment from the Minister to conduct a full review of existing services, staffing numbers and the vacancies within the various hospital services and staffing levels.”
He went on to say the situation in the hospital at present is critical and the staff at present are working under the most difficult of circumstances and in the most challenging of working conditions as it is evident that there are serious capacity issues within the hospital – and extra beds and staff are urgently required otherwise the problems will only worsen.
Pat the Cope stated that our District and Community Hospitals could also play a role in both averting admission to and enabling discharge from acute hospitals and this would on part alleviate some of the pressures on our Hospitals.
“But in order to do that we need better joint up thinking and inter Hospital co-operation, but in addition our community Hospitals will need upgrading in order to meet the increased demands placed on them.
“I am again calling on Minister Simon Harris or indeed whom so ever that will be Health Minister next week to immediately put in place a strategy for dealing with this ongoing crisis, that will involve additional resources , extra staff and extra bed capacity but most significantly of all it will involve a commitment from the Government that urgent attention needs to be given to the ongoing crises at Letterkenny University Hospital as opposed to the policy of ignoring and failing to deal with the ongoing problems at Letterkenny in dealing with the increased service demands placed on it by the growing and increasing demands,” concluded Pat the Cope.
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