HEALTH Minister Stephen Donnelly has come under fire for failing to confirm when he will meet with local GPs amid ‘service collapse’ fears in Letterkenny University Hospital.
One month on from when 78 GPs, backed by 11 consultants, penned a letter to Minister Donnelly imploring him to come to Donegal to see first hand the crisis at the hospital he has yet to confirm when he will meet with them.
In the correspondence, particular concerns were raised about the hospital’s emergency department.
Calls for an external review to be carried out were made following concerns for patient safety.
A six-week review of the emergency department is now underway following a meeting between Saolta CEO Tony Canavan and the Regional Health Forum.
However, there is anger that Minister Donnelly has still not given a date of when he will visit the hospital.
Speaking to Minister Charlie McConalogue in the Dáil on Thursday, Deputy Pearse Doherty TD said: “He has still not met with them. He has refused to take up that offer, despite the unprecedented intervention.
“Indeed, on two separate occasions, two weeks in a row, the Minister for Health refused to come before this house to debate a topical issue with myself and Deputy Pádraig MacLochlainn on this crisis in Letterkenny.
“So I ask you, Minister McConalogue, or indeed the Minister for Health if he wants to discuss this, to stand up and be counted.
“It is a month on and you still haven’t shown them the respect to actually travel to Donegal and meet them and hear their concerns.”
Responding, Minister Donnelly said he was not ruling out a future visit to Donegal, but stopped short of giving an exact date when he will do so.