Independent TD, Thomas Pringle, said the severe shortage of hospital beds has been raised with successive governments over decades.
Addressing the Dáil on Wednesday evening, Deputy Pringle said the current situation in our hospitals is devastating and completely unacceptable and “catastrophic”.
“Yesterday, Letterkenny University Hospital, in my constituency, was the second-worst affected hospital in the country, with 54 patients waiting on trolleys,” he added.
“I cannot imagine how stressful this situation is for those 54 people and their families. It is not only totally inhumane to have so many people left waiting for a bed, but it is also extremely dangerous. It is estimated that hundreds of people die in Ireland each year due to the overcrowding situation.”
“This government and previous governments should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
The deputy said: “The severe shortage of beds in our hospitals is not a new problem. It has been raised in this chamber every winter for decades.
“Unsurprisingly, the politicians behind the crisis have not changed either, and I think that says it all.
The deputy also repeated his suggestion that the government employ doctors from Cuba to ease the crisis in the health service, something other European countries have already done.
