Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for again allowing me to raise this important matter, namely, the continuing crisis in Letterkenny General Hospital, where patients on trolleys are a regular feature of hospital life and operations and appointments are cancelled on a daily basis. What has precipitated tonight's debate is the report carried out by a United Kingdom health care consultancy firm, Tribal Secta, into the situation in Letterkenny General Hospital. The report has not been published and is not available yet, but some of the findings are reported in today's media. The report is an indication of the way the hospital has been more or less abandoned in recent years.

Let me be clear on one issue, however. The report does not negatively reflect on the staff in Letterkenny General Hospital. On the contrary, they are complimented for their dedication to duty while working in almost impossible conditions. Any person who has been treated in Letterkenny General Hospital as an inpatient or an outpatient will vouch for the commitment, dedication, professionalism and sincerity of the staff who try their best to put up with the current conditions at the hospital.

The report details a litany of problems, difficulties, infrastructural deficiencies and shortcomings at the hospital, concluding that the accident and emergency department is "not fit for delivering emergency care in the twenty-first century". What an indictment that is. The report also finds that during the first six months of 2005, more than 1,100 admissions to the hospital had to be cancelled. Since then, the situation has deteriorated and is almost out of control. Patients on trolleys are the rule rather than the exception.

The report focuses on the accident and emergency unit and finds that it is incapable of meeting the demands on its services. The hospital's day-case ward is regularly used as a holding area for accident and emergency patients, resulting in the cancellation of elective procedures. Emergency and urgent admissions are given priority over elective work and cancellations are now routine, due to the rising number of patients requiring admission. The report also states that patients have had operations cancelled up to three or four times. I am aware of a patient who has had to endure five cancellations in four months.

It is not simply an accident and emergency crisis, but a whole hospital crisis that stems from the core problem of a chronic shortage of beds in Letterkenny. This shortage initiates a chain reaction of over-crowded wards leading to overcrowding in the accident and emergency unit, which spills over into the day-case ward and eventually even into the coffee dock. This chain reaction and its knock-on effects is the everyday situation in Letterkenny.

In truth, what has been found by the consultants is nothing that we have not been aware of for many years. While we did not need consultants to tell us what is happening in Letterkenny General Hospital, their report nevertheless highlights the crisis and might provoke the Government into seriously addressing the situation. While the hospital has been given approval to go to tender for the construction of a new accident and emergency department, this will not become available for at least three or four years. The report strongly recommends interim improvements, such as the provision of a temporary building to expand the treatment space now available to the accident and emergency department. I strongly support the adoption of that recommendation, which would relieve difficulties in the short term. The provision of the new accident and emergency block and 60 or 70 additional beds is the only long-term solution.

We need to plan for the future, given the age profile of the population of Donegal, which has a higher than average percentage of people over 65. Elderly people have recurrent illnesses and need continuous treatment. There will be increased and more incessant demands on the facilities in Letterkenny General Hospital in the next ten to 15 years. This is not the first, second or even the third time I have raised this issue this year. I will keep raising the matter until I get an acceptable response that will give some hope to the people who have to depend on the services, often unavailable for many, in Letterkenny General Hospital. I seek an immediate response and definite news from the Minister of State.

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