Donegal County Council has agreed to write to Minister for Health Simon Harris to call for the recruitment embargo to be lifted in the Health Service.
County councillor Gerry McMonagle has this week called for a ‘strong letter’ to be sent to the Department of Health ahead of Budget 2020 seeking the necessary resources to fill long-term vacancies that have resulted from the embargo.
Cllr McMonagle told the council that a high number of vacancies in Letterkenny University Hospital has contributed to extended outpatient waiting lists in outpatients, a shortage of beds, patients on trolleys and long A&E waiting times. He also warned that Brexit will put further pressures on the health service.
“It’s not good enough that our people in Donegal seem to have to travel everywhere for everything,” Cllr McMonagle told this week’s county council meeting.
“We have a state of the art hospital, we have good staff, but we have a lot of vacancies.”
Cllr McMonagle, who is a member of the Northwest Regional Health Forum, added that LUH would not disclose how many vacancies there are present, despite his requests.
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