Minister no-show at Letterkenny Hospital labelled ‘disrespectful’ and ‘arrogant’
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Pearse Doherty criticise Stephen Donnelly for not attending the Dáil debate regarding Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) for a second time
Donegal Deputies Pádraig Mac Lochlainn and Pearse Doherty have lambasted the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly for not showing up for a debate in the Dáil on Letterkenny University Hospital for a second week in a row and for not visiting Donegal for a meeting with GPs and Consultants.
Deputy Mac Lochlainn also announced that Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Health David Cullinane will visit Letterkenny on Thursday to meet with GPs and Consultants.
“We were here last Tuesday and there was no notification given that the minister himself would not be present. We asked that the matter be deferred – that’s a whole week we had to wait. We would have fully expected the Minister for Health to be here tonight,” Teachta Mac Lochlainn said.
“I just think it’s the utmost disrespect shown to the people of Donegal that here we are, for the second Tuesday in a row and we do not have the Minister for Health here.
“We have had no indication if he will be in Letterkenny anytime soon to visit LUH so we are going to bring our Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson David Cullinane to Letterkenny now on Thursday.
“He will show the necessary respect. He will meet with the GPs. He will meet with the Consultants. He will listen to their concerns.
“They are calling for an independent external review, an urgent review of not just the Emergency Department but the entire operation of LUH.”
Following on, Deputy Pearse Doherty addressed that the hospital is just about staying together but that immediate intervention is necessary and the ministerial no-show disrespects the people of Donegal.
“It does smack of arrogance that the Minister has, for two weeks in a row, decided not to come before the Dáil and listen to what myself and Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn have to say,” Teachta Doherty added.
“It’s not arrogance towards me or Pádraig, it’s actually to the people of Donegal.
“There is discrimination at the heart of this.
“We have said time and time again, that this hospital is being kept together by elastic bands and the goodwill of the staff.
“But, bit by bit, they are snapping. And they are snapping to the point where the GPs across the county, 78 of them in total, had to come together to say to the Minister very clearly that there are serious issues
“11 of the consultants have stood out, have put their names to a letter and said that there could be a service collapse.
“We still do not know, weeks on, that the Minister is going to come to Donegal and listen to those health professionals who are at the front line.”