Letterkenny General Hospital.
Donegal’s largest Trade Union, IMPACT has raised concern that the supports will not be in place for the recently announced new breast consultant post at Letterkenny University Hospital.
The public sector trade union which represents over 2000 members in the County, with significant membership at the hospital, has stated that the new Consultant will not be resourced with a dedicated Medical Secretary, a post that is critical for the Consultant in the relationship and dealings with service users.
IMPACT North West, Assistant General Secretary, Richy Carrothers said As with everyone else, we were delighted with the announcement that a new breast consultant was to be appointed.
But he added “When we enquired as to the appointment of a Medical Secretary, management reported this must be within existing resources. The Medical Secretary is a key link between the Consultant and patients, they are responsible for calling clinics, making appointments, responding to queries from patients, processing GP referrals, ensuring that all medial notes are typed up and patient records are up to date. Without this dedicated clerical/admin support, there is no way a Consultant will be able to be as efficient and effective as they could be”.
The union representative added they have raised their concerns with the Letterkenny University hospital management and at the highest levels in the Saolta hospital group.
He added “The medical secretary staff in the hospital are already at breaking point trying to cope with staff shortages and overwork and this will simply add to a system that is already significantly overstretched. Management have acknowledged that there is a crisis due to the severe shortages at the hospital of clerical and administration staff, but little is being done to address the problem”.
“The Saolta Group trumpeted the announcement of the Breast Consultant with much fanfare and we were delighted to be told that it was on the way, it now turns out that the post will not be staffed adequately. With the best will in the world, the new post will not run at full capacity without the dedicated resources it requires – this is bad news for the people of Donegal and across the North West. Yet again we are being sold short in relation to comparative services on offer elsewhere in the Country.”
