"Extremely dangerous" bed situation at Letterkenny Hospital raised in Dáil

The "stressful" and "extremely dangerous" situation for patients lying on trolley beds at Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH), was brought to the attention of the Dáil again last night as Donegal TD Thomas Pringle, blamed the severe shortage of hospital beds on successive governments over decades.

He told the Dáil and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly: “Yesterday, Letterkenny University Hospital, in my constituency, was the second-worst affected hospital in the country, with 54 patients waiting on trolleys.

"I cannot imagine how stressful this situation is for those 54 people and their families. It is not only totally inhumane to have so many people left waiting for a bed, but it is also extremely dangerous. It is estimated that hundreds of people die in Ireland each year due to the overcrowding situation.

The deputy added: “The severe shortage of beds in our hospitals is not a new problem. It has been raised in this chamber every winter for decades. 

“Unsurprisingly, the politicians behind the crisis have not changed either, and I think that says it all.

“Not only have things not improved in over 20 years, they have actually gotten worse.

“The Tánaiste will remember the capacity review conducted in 2002, after which the government committed ‘to provide for an additional 3,000 acute hospital beds’. 

“Despite this commitment to provide more beds, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have not only not followed through on this, but they have actually allowed the number to drop continuously over the last two decades, with a significant dip after 2008,” the deputy said.

He added: “The current situation in our hospitals is devastating and completely unacceptable,” calling the overcrowding crisis, “catastrophic”.

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Deputy Pringle was speaking on the Sinn Féin motion re Measures to Increase Capacity in the Health Service.

The deputy also repeated his suggestion that Government employ doctors from Cuba to ease the crisis in the health service, something other European countries have already done.

Deputy Pringle said: “It’s there if you ask for it.” He said he has written to the minister on the matter but has not received a reply.

The deputy said: “That could be done, but obviously you’re not interested.”