Sinn Féin Justice Spokesperson and Donegal Deputy Pádraig MacLochlainn has welcomed confirmation from management at Letterkenny University Hospital that an additional Dermatologist is to be appointed to operate out-reach clinics at the hospital following its suspension last May, but has criticised the out-going Health Minister for the length of time is has taken to reinstate the service.
His comments come following confirmation received from hospital management this week stating that the appointment of an additional Dermatologist for the clinic is currently being processed however.
Mr Mac Lochlainn has criticised the Minister for the decision having been made in the first place to suspend the service.
Deputy MacLochlainn said: “In May last year a decision was taken by Sligo University Hospital to reconfigure Dermatology services which management claim was needed in order to achieve the maximum permissible patient waiting times for the service which is set at 15 months.
“Subsequently, a decision was then made to temporarily suspend the out-reach clinic for Dermatology which operated at Letterkenny hospital and instead to operate additional clinics in Sligo.
“In essence, services were taken out of Donegal as a direct result of the pressures which have been placed on the service and its personnel to achieve waiting targets.
“Since then, patients from all over Donegal have had to travel to Sligo to receive treatment which, for those in West Donegal and in the north of the county, has often meant having to take time off work to attend clinics which had been provided locally up until that point.
“This has most impacted on those patients who have been required to make follow-up visits due to the nature of their conditions, which means that they have had to make the trip now on a few occasion to receive treatment.
“This only further highlights the under resourcing of our health service which has been shamefully neglected under successive governments and it also shows just how stretched services are at our acute public hospitals.
“The very fact that a hospital must go to such lengths as to cancel clinics simply to cope with the demands placed on it is simply not good enough and the Minister has allowed this to happen through his inaction.
“While I welcome confirmation from management that an additional Dermatologist is to be appointed and that this process is now underway which will see clinics at Letterkenny Hospital subsequently reinstated, it is unacceptable that the decision to suspend these clinics had to be taken in the first instance.”
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