Almost 80 GPs in Donegal have penned a letter to the Health Minister, calling for urgent action at the emergency department at Letterkenny University Hospital.
It follows on from a meeting with hospital management where they highlighted their patient safety concerns, particularly in relation to timely access to services at the hospital.
Hospital management outlined a number of planned interventions at the ED in LUH for this winter.
However, the GPs do not believe that the proposed scale and ambition of these plans match the urgent need for fundamental systems change in the department.
They say that if no significant changes take place, our patients will continue to have unacceptable wait times to access basic emergency care in LUH.
In an unprecedented move, driven by worsening waiting times at the ED, and for ambulance drop offs at the hospital before the winter surge, the letter calls for the Minister and senior officials to step in and provide external intervention in the hospital.
Similar external reviews have taken place in LUH for other departments, which have resulted in improved outcomes for patients.
LUH has the longest ambulance turnaround times in the country, meaning patients wait in ambulances before they are seen and are treated by ED staff.
The letter goes on to say that the GPs no longer have faith that the current situation can be resolved without external review and intervention.
The unprecedented intervention by Donegal GPs comes as the county faces in to uncertain times with an expected winter surge in hospital admissions and emergency department presentations.
