Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

4 o’clock

People in Donegal do not want to see more exploration of solutions. They want to see actual solutions being put in place. This is the actual problem. I was very much in favour of the cross-Border idea with regard to radiology, which is being rolled out in Altnagelvin. However, the elephant in the room is Brexit and how this will impact on marrying together the clinical services and providing a service, if this is how it will be done. We need to see action. It will be a shock to people in Donegal to realise a full-time locum breast surgeon is all that is being sought at present when in January 2016 the announcement was that a full-time breast surgeon would be appointed in Letterkenny. We have enough locums. We do not need locums; we need actual appointments and action. A concern we had when the hospital groups were established was whether we would see a pull of services into Galway, and this certainly seems to be what is happening. I ask the Minister to take up this point with the Saolta group. The journey time from Donegal to Galway is four to five hours. If people from Dublin were asked to travel to Kerry to see a consultant they would not stand for it and it is not fair to expect people in the north west to do so.

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