Doctors welcome Letterkenny surgical hub as ‘big step forward’ for hospital

Donegal doctors have welcomed confirmation that a surgical hub will be established at Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH).

The decision for both LUH and Sligo University Hospital to have surgical hubs was announced earlier this week by Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

The Minister visited LUH on Monday and set a target of two years for the Letterkenny hub to be completed.

The news was well received among Donegal doctors. A letter outlining the need for the hub to be based in Letterkenny was signed by 171 Donegal-based doctors, who raised concerns at a potential snub in favour of Sligo.

“I think it’s a big step forward for the hospital,” said Dr Pádraig McGuinness, GP in Fanad, after a meeting with the Minister on Monday. “It’s a great statement of intent that Letterkenny University Hospital is here to stay and it’s going to get bigger and better, and it was a great meeting where we discussed the next steps with the minister.

“I think it shows the importance of having a campaign and working together, with all the consultants and all the GPs, all of the politicians for the first time ever on the one hymn sheet, and that ended up delivering the project. That is a model that we all have to be on the same team going forward to make this the best hospital it can be.”

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“I think we as clinicians have identified that there is an inequity in healthcare over the last few years, and this has been impacting patients' access to diagnostics in the region,” said Dr Áine Keating, Consultant in Emergency Medicine in LUH. “This is firm evidence that the government has confidence in our hospital and confidence in delivering healthcare for the region. This is a massive win for Donegal.

“This is going to give us momentum and positivity in our hospital to try and build resources and try and deliver effective clinical care because it’s all about the patients, and this is a really great time for the patients in Donegal.

“Now we have to go behind the scenes and work hard at trying to get this infrastructure built in a two to three-year timeline. That’s our aim. That will help us recruit the surgeons that we need for the hospital and keep the hospital running."

Dr Keating praised Minister Carroll MacNeill’s data-driven approach as a contributing factor in securing a surgical hub for LUH.

“This hospital is the second largest Model 3 hospital, we have 54,000 annual A&E attendances, we have a region of 150,000 people, and we have a great need for healthcare,” said Dr Keating. “When you look at the data and the facts, you cannot deny what is needed. She couldn’t look away from that and that’s why she gave a hub to Letterkenny and to the people of Donegal.”

It is hoped that the surgical hub will alleviate pressures on LUH and prevent elective surgeries and day appointments from being cancelled.

“At the minute, you might have 13 or 14 patients in A&E waiting for a bed in the hospital and if they can’t locate a bed for them, which is often every day, they will take away from the elective cases that are being done,” said Dr Keating. “They’ll cancel electives in order to get the patients into the hospital so they can be treated for their acute issues.

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“If you now take away the electives and put them away in a ringfenced surgical hub that is standalone, not within the acute hospital, then you stop cancellations and you allow a better flow of elective care going through the hospital, not impacting on the acute care. That frees up beds within the hospital as well to try and deliver acute care needs.

“If you’re coming in with pneumonia or acute infections, they can be treated here in the hospital. When you’re getting day case procedures, such as an arthroscopy on your knee or if you need a skin lesion taken off, it can get done in the surgical hub and it won’t get cancelled, so everybody wins. It’s a win-win for all the patients here.”