Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

Yes, I will use all of the time.

The NTPF represents acceptance by the Government that health service provision is not working. More than 2,600 patients have been referred from Letterkenny General Hospital to other hospitals, many of them to Ballykelly hospital, a private hospital in Northern Ireland. This raises an issue. If we want to keep money in the State and are trying to create economies and to use Government money in a worthwhile fashion why are we abdicating responsibility for performing operations? Consultants in Letterkenny General Hospital are being paid but they are idle as they do not receive the services to carry out orthopaedic surgery. In this day and age, why are we sending patients across the Border to Ballykelly hospital? While Ballykelly hospital and the surgeons there provide an excellent service, and the patients who have gone there speak very highly of it, why are we not considering a model whereby we do not have to send them there? We have beds-----

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