FRUSTRATIONS were high for one Donegal TD who used an opportunity in the Dáil to brand the overcrowding crisis in Letterkenny University Hospital as ‘f***ing ridiculous’.

 

Thomas Pringle TD used the expletive language to vent his outrage at the unrelenting situation in LUH. 

 

The hospital has been one of the most overcrowded in the country  – with latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation revealing more than 200 people waiting on an inpatient bed in the last week.

 

Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday night, Donegal Deputy Thomas Pringle launched a stinging attack on the government for not being proactive enough to finding a resolution the spiralling crisis in LUH.

 

He said nothing will improve until those in power take real action.

 

“For the month of October the INMO confirmed a total of 693 people were either on trolleys or waiting on wards on the hospital over four weeks making it one of the most overcrowded hospitals in the country.

 

“The recruitment embargo has prevented Letterkenny University Hospital from recruiting the doctors, nurses and support staff required to fully open the hospital’s short stay ward. 

 

What we have in Letterkenny is an ambulance service run for a very big county. Most of the ambulances are actually sitting at LUH waiting to discharge patients into it. That is f***ing ridiculous. This is continuously going on and we’re here constantly talking about it.”