Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As a representative of Donegal North-East, the best example I can give in dealing with the substantive issue in this debate is the case of Letterkenny General Hospital. As Deputies will know, a serious flood last year affected the hospital's new three-storey building as well as the older part of the hospital. Approximately 40% of the hospital's floor space was contaminated by flood water. It was an unprecedented level of crisis for a hospital in this State. The response of the hospital's management and staff to that incident, both on the night it happened and during the clean-up in the days that followed, was absolutely heroic. It has been a substantial challenge for them to hold the place together since that time. However, the hospital's accident and emergency department has been overwhelmed in recent weeks. Contrary to what some people have suggested, this is not solely as a result of the impact of the flood. It is a reflection of the historic neglect of the hospital.

Letterkenny General Hospital is the seventh largest hospital in the State. Each year, it takes in approximately 21,000 inpatients, which is considerably more than some hospitals that have higher budgets. It is remarkable that it is designated as a general hospital rather than a regional hospital as it should be. It deals with 21,000 inpatients. It has the lowest budget allocation per inpatient and the lowest allocation of staff in the State. That has been the case for many years. It has been suggested to me that last year's flood and the response to it took the spotlight from the hospital's inevitable medical staffing crisis. The hospital has approximately six medical registrars, measured as whole-time equivalents, when it needs 16 of them. There is a real crisis in terms of that key component. It is not possible to sustain all the specialties in a hospital and man a 24-hour accident and emergency unit in the absence of the required number of medical registrars.

I would like to conclude by speaking about the historic neglect of certain hospitals in various parts of Ireland. I refer, for example, to the manner in which junior doctors are allocated from the training hospitals. It is right that the taxpayer, through the HSE, subsidises those training hospitals. However, there does not seem to be a means of ensuring these key staff are allocated fairly to other hospitals. I want to use this debate to call for that to change. This is not some parish pump thing. The facts are the facts. It is a fact that Letterkenny General Hospital has the lowest budget allocation per inpatient and the lowest allocation of medical staff in the State. That was the scenario before the flood. We want to see the full restoration of Letterkenny General Hospital. I am not just talking in terms of capital. We need to ensure the hospital has enough staff to run effectively. I will make three recommendations in that context. First, Letterkenny General Hospital needs to be upgraded to regional hospital status. Second, there needs to be a fair allocation of staff and budgetary resources to the hospital, based on its number of inpatients. Third, and most immediately, there needs to be an allocation of medical registrars to the hospital, especially given that we have heard from the most senior staff at the hospital that it is facing a staffing crisis in this key area. I call on the Minister of State to pass this urgent message on to the Minister and Ministers of State at the Department of Health. The staff of the hospital should be met half way. The Government should respond to the heroism of the staff and management of the hospital by giving them what they need to do their jobs.

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