Donegal Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has again called on the Minister for Health to end the recruitment embargo at Letterkenny University Hospital, which has experienced high levels of overcrowding this week.
The numbers of people awaiting in-patient beds at the hospital reached 40 today, one of the highest numbers in the State.
Senator Mac Lochlainn said the hospital’s inability to recruit nurses, doctors and support staff is adding to the crisis. He is calling on Minister for Health Simon Harris to lift the recruitment ban to reopen all the beds in the hospital’s Short Stay Ward and to fill positions across the hospital.
He said: “I understand that the only barrier to reopening all of the 20 beds in LUH’s Short Stay Ward is the government’s recruitment embargo being implemented by the HSE for months now.
“I am also aware of a huge reduction in elective surgeries and procedures across the hospital that is driving up hospital waiting lists across Donegal with many people unnecessarily living with painful conditions.
“This recruitment embargo doesn’t make financial sense as rather than investing in our public health system, the government are redirecting millions of euro to private ambulance companies, private hospitals and recruitment agencies. I am again calling on the Minister for Health, Simon Harris to end this counter-productive recruitment embargo.”