Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In my 20-plus years in politics, I have never experienced anything like the tsunami of emails from consultants across all disciplines. So far, I have received emails from 34 consultants at Sligo University Hospital, SUH, highlighting the completely unacceptable and unsafe conditions for patients and staff, the consistent underinvestment in the hospital and the unfair and unjust sharing out of resources within the Saolta University Health Care Group. This action is unprecedented, which tells you that this is an emergency that needs immediate and ongoing attention at the highest level. This situation did not arise overnight. I do not have time to go into the historic underfunding at SUH, but nothing less than a complete refocusing of resources is needed to address the historic under-resourcing at SUH.

I have raised this issue with the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Tánaiste many times on the floor of this House because the hospital is in crisis and not for political reasons. The Taoiseach has received all the emails so I am sure he is well briefed on the issues raised but in the minute or two I have left, I will highlight in the words of the various consultants the most pressing issues. Perhaps one phrase from one consultant sums it up: "I have worked as a consultant at SUH for over 17 years and I have never seen the demand on our services so high nor the morale of our staff so low." Another consultant backed this up by saying: "We are haemorrhaging staff and cannot recruit. SUH is in my opinion at a tipping point."

SUH has one CT scanner and when it is serviced or breaks down, as it did for three days last September, Sligo cannot provide the absolute basic requirement of an acute hospital. A new CT scanner is promised for 2024 yet Saolta has prioritised a third CT scanner for Galway University Hospital where there are five other CT scanners within a five-mile radius rather than a second one in SUH where there is a much greater clinical risk. SUH has one ageing MRI scanner providing imaging services for a population of 250,000.

Time and again, I have raised the issue of trolley numbers. The Taoiseach will be well aware that this number compared to the number of beds in the hospital is the worst in the country. I know there was an emergency meeting with the Minister for Health last night, which is great. Any meeting is a start but that is all it is. There have been many false starts. We are well used to them in Sligo. I want to hear real commitments today.

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