Ministerial intervention is being sought to open the Maternity Unit at Letterkenny University Hospital that has been lying idle for 18 years.
Donegal Councillor Liam Doherty called on the council this week to contact the Government on the issue.
It was revealed last year that the bespoke maternity unit has not been used since its construction back in 2000.
Cllr Doherty said the unit not being resourced is a sign of “sheer incompetence on the part of successive governments”.
“This is at a time when the hospital has record-breaking levels of overcrowding and patients on waiting lists,” he said.
LUH has four operational in-patient theatres, yet only three of them are used on a regular basis as the fourth operating room must be kept free in the event that a patient should require an emergency caesarean section to be carried out.
“This is the women and children of our county and they deserve better. They deserve access to modern maternity services,” Cllr Doherty said.
Cllr Marie Therese Gallagher said ministerial intervention is necessary to address the staffing issue.
Cllr Gallagher said: “If you or somebody belonging to you attends the maternity service, you are wheeled out and upstairs to another theatre, while this state-of-the-art investment is lying idle.”
Earlier this year, Deputy Pearse Doherty and Senator Padraig MacLochlainn called on the Minister for Health to make the necessary funding and resources available to the hospital in order to finally have this facility commissioned and operational.
The council agreed to call on the Government to open the theatre.
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