A protest has been organised in Letterkenny to highlight the difficulties Donegal people face when trying to access adequate healthcare.
Organised by the Still Waiting campaign, the protest will begin outside Letterkenny University Hospital at 1pm next Saturday, the 24th February. Participants will then march to the Market Square, where a range of speakers will address the crowd.
Campaign Coordinator Cyril Brennan says: “People in Donegal have had enough, the full capacity protocol has been called for too many times within the largest hospital in Donegal.”
On Thursday night, LUH ran out of trolleys and patients had to wait in armchairs in the Accident and Emergency area, with a frontline hospital worker telling Donegal Daily that the situation is “a mess.”
Yesterday 56 patients were awaiting admission at the hospital, making it the most overcrowded hospital in Ireland. 43 of these patients were waiting on trolleys, with a further 13 waiting along the wards. This is the highest figure recorded to date.
The Still Waiting Campaign is calling for urgent health reforms; the key objectives include; increased bed capacity, restoring staffing levels to pre-crisis levels, the establishment of a not-for-profit homecare service, as well as moving towards a national health service.
Cyril added: “It’s time the people of Donegal asked what has the recent Emergency Department Taskforce set up by Simon Harris achieved for the people of Donegal.”
Speaking last month after a meeting with the ED Taskforce, Health Minister Simon Harris says that the HSE’s top three priorities in 2018 are based on: “increasing bed capacity using evidence provided by the bed capacity review, implementing reform through Sláintecare and increasing services provided through Primary Care by negotiating a new GP contract.”
It is understood that a HSE official visited the hospital yesterday.
Donegal Daily has contacted the Department of Health to ask for clarification on the ED Taskforce’s work in relation to LUH, and for comment on the HSE official’s findings during their visit to LUH yesterday.
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