FEARS over the future
of the Breast Service Unit at Letterkenny General
Hospital have been allayed with confirmation the
service is to continue.
The Minister of State for the Gaeltacht, Joe McHugh
TD, has this morning welcomed confirmation he
received following a meeting at the hospital last
Friday with both management and consultants.
"It was brought to my attention that the hospital
would not be in a position to provide a consultancy
service to patients who had been referred by their
GP for specific breast services," said the minister.
“During the three hour meeting at the hospital, I
was informed that the current number of routine
patients awaiting an appointment at Letterkenny
Hospital, which was in direct breach of the HSE’s 12
week target, was estimated at 600. The suggested
proposal was to write to each person, requesting
that they travel to Galway to avail of consultant
services at Galway University Hospital."
The Donegal T.D., said he then contacted the
Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, to discuss what
steps were needed to prevent this action from going
ahead.
"The minister, his staff and his officials at the
Department took immediate action and a conference
call took place between the relevant HSE officials
and the Saolta Group on Monday, January19, 2015.
A number of short and medium term decisions were
made during the conference call, namely:
Short term: a further review of the situation would
take place immediately with the immediate
appointment of a locum consultant breast surgeon;
additional clinics would be arranged at Letterkenny
Hospital to support the review of patients.
Medium term: Consideration will be given to the
placement of GP support to the consultant at the
Breast Unit; the recruitment of an advanced nurse
practitioner to help support the unit; to review the
delivery of integrated breast services across the
group.
“I understand that a detailed plan will be drafted
to deal with the backlog currently in place, within
this coming week," added Minister McHugh. |
