The whole area of recruitment of junior doctors and consultants at Letterkenny General Hospital must be reviewed, says Cllr Ciaran Brogan.
Cllr Ciaran Brogan
The Fianna Fail representative said fact that the hospital is using agency doctors at present is totally unsatisfactory.
Last year Letterkenny spent €6 million on such agency staff which he described as “an awful lot of money for non-permanent personnel.”
“It was reported recently that the H.S.E. is paying private agencies a massive €110,000 every thirteen weeks to fill a single consultant post at Letterkenny General. Last September the Dail Public Accounts Committee was told that five consultant posts at the hospital are being filled on hourly-rate contracts with the cost for three months equivalent to the normal pay of a full-time consultant for an entire year.
“That to me is crazy money at a time when we should be filling vacancies on a permanent basis and that’s something I impressed on the General Manager at Letterkenny Hospital, Sean Murphy, when I had a meeting with him on Tuesday of this week.
“The Government needs to be attracting junior doctors and filling these positions on a permanent basis. The same Government boasted the line that money would follow the patient. I’m afraid I have yet to see that.”
He aded that whatever resources are required to make these positions permanent must be provided.
“We cannot continue handing out huge amounts of money to these agencies when medical posts can, and should, be filled permanently.
“The resources must be given to help meet the huge demand that exists at Letterkenny General Hospital on a daily basis.”
H said that after a recent meeting with the General Manager Sean Murphy, he undertook a tour of the hospital to monitor the rebuilding programme and said there is certainly a lot of progress being made.
“New equipment is being provided and the new dining room and kitchen area should be open in the next month, I was told. The new chapel has been completed and is looking very well,” he aded.
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