Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle had strong words to say in Dáil Éireann about the overcrowding crisis at Letterkenny Univerity Hospital.
Lashing out about the trolley numbers, delayed admissions and waiting times, he said the situation is “f*cking ridiculous”.
Letterkenny University Hospital was one of the most overcrowded hospitals in the country in October 2019. A total of 693 emergency patients were either on trolleys or waiting on wards in the hospital. There were 19,108 people awaiting inpatient or outpatient treatments at the end of June. A total of 1,783 women are waiting for a gynaecologist appointment at Letterkenny University Hospital.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Independent TD Thomas Pringle said that cutting budgets is not going to solve the health crisis in Irish hospitals.
“The recruitment embargo has prevented management at Letterkenny University Hospital from recruiting the nurses, doctors and support staff required to reopen the hospital short stay ward fully,” Deputy Pringle said.
“In Letterkenny University Hospital we also have an ambulance service that is run for a big county but where most of the ambulances are sitting at the hospital waiting to discharge patients into it.
“That is fucking ridiculous.”
The solution, according to Deputy Pringle, is funding, which is not forthcoming.
“This has gone on and on and we are here all the time talking about it. It should not continue but the Minister is not dealing with the problem properly because the problem is a funding issue and that is where the solution will be.
“If the Minister is constantly talking about doing more for less, he will do less for less. That is the reality of the situation and that is all that will happen.”
