Sinn Fein Donegal Deputies Padraig MacLochlainn and Pearse Doherty today released a joint statement saying that the current health budget could be catastrophic for services here.
Ahead of a Sinn Fein motion being brought to the Dail today calling for more investment in health services, Deputy Doherty said that “The decision by the Government to underfund the Health Service in Budget 2024 is reckless and must be condemned. If this decision is not reversed, it will have a devastating effect on hospitals and health services right across the state, and particularly in Donegal where we are already seeing a crisis with Letterkenny University Hospital. In Sinn Féin’s motion this week, we are calling on the Government to step back from the brink and provide proper funding to keep our health service working”.
“The consequences if they fail to do so will be felt widely across all services and are already being felt in Donegal. 78 GPs in Donegal have recently signed a letter telling the government that they fear that they are putting patients at risk when they send them to the Emergency Department. They’ve even said that they will take their patients onto the streets in protest if something isn’t done. 11 Consultants at the hospital then echoed their sentiments in their own letter saying that LUH is facing a ‘service collapse’. These are unprecedented interventions”.
Deputy MacLochlainn added, saying that “LUH is one of the busiest hospitals in the state but is only the 14th best funded. That is not acceptable and people in Donegal deserve better. The government have also not allocated additional capital funding to deliver the promised 1,500 acute inpatient hospital beds, of which, no less than 91 are needed in Letterkenny”.
“There will also be setbacks across the health service. That is a shameful indictment of a Government that has seemingly thrown in the towel on health. The government is failing both patients and healthcare workers in the process. The Government must reverse their disastrous decision to deliberately underfund health, and protect patients and those working on the front line.”
