Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur with the Minister and I thank him for his comments about the staff. What they and the management of the hospital have achieved has been heroic and amazing. The flooding of the hospital was one of the biggest disasters at any hospital in the history of the State. The accident and emergency department at Letterkenny General Hospital is the seventh busiest in the country, which shows the demands on the service. The hospital has had difficulty in recruiting the staff it needs and the numbers of staff which have been approved. This demonstrates the job of work faced by the hospital in dealing with its daily workload. We need to have solutions from the Minister. He has outlined that the number of NCHD posts has been increased to 126, but the real difficulty is in recruitment. The Minister has indicated there may be potential for rotation in the new hospital group. Whether the solution is in the system of rotation or else international recruitment in the medium term until there is more supply from this country, we need to see solutions quickly. We cannot continue with the current situation because it will mean more delays in the accident and emergency department which is unacceptable for patients in Donegal.

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