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THE RECONSTRUCTION OF Letterkenny General Hospital could take far longer than being predicted by the HSE, the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine has warned.
A major clean-up is continuing at the Donegal facility after parts of it were flooded on Friday following heavy rain. The ground floor was said to be “completely destroyed” by the rising waters after the River Swilly overflowed.
The Emergency Department remains closed, and patients are currently being diverted to Sligo Regional and to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry. The latest update from HSE West states that the ED is likely to remain closed for a number of weeks.
However, the IAEM – made-up of emergency doctors – says international experience suggests the reconstruction will take far longer. The organisation is calling for regular and clear updates from the health service on how long the situation is likely to continue:
…it must be appreciated that for an Emergency Department to function and provide a safe service to patients, the necessary supporting infrastructure needs to be in place. Basic hospital functions such as medical records , diagnostic imaging services , laboratory services, inpatient beds, inpatient specialist teams and operating theatre capability are required.
Fergal Hickey, a consultant in emergency medicine at Sligo Regional Hospital and spokesperson for the IAEM, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland it was likely the reconstruction and restoration effort will take “months rather than weeks”.
He said that in the meantime hospital staff at Letterkenny – and at Sligo and Altnagelvin - were facing a major challenge, and that it was inevitable “patients will take longer to be seen”.
Letterkenny General Hospital remains closed to all visitors today due to risk of contamination, a spokesperson told TheJournal.ie, as many areas of the facility were soiled during the flooding.
Gives me a great idea for matching wedding flowers to bridesmaids dresses!!
@Brianog2- dont do that!! The food dye ends up staining dresses! I wanted royal blue flowers for my wedding & as royal blue doesn’t occur naturally in nature, white flowers dyed was an option but my florist freaked out & said no, she’d see too many dresses destroyed by people dying white flowers!
Thanks Emily
A far better way to get kids interested in science would be to involve some sort of explosion.
That’s safe and easy to do with some breadsoda and water.
And vinegar Dermot.
Mentos and coke either
I forgot the vinegar! Doh!
A nice idea is splitting the stems of the flower and putting half in one colour and half in another colour, its a little bit more impressive.
There are thousands of simple experiments to do with small kids, great for getting them interested in science.
I remember doing this experiment in 1st class many moons ago.
My science teacher did this with red dye in a geranium plant so you could see every stem and leaf highlighted in red- fantastic!
Getting my sons ‘hotwires’ and a ‘microscope set’ for xmas so they can experiment with technology and science. At 9 and 8 they should be old enough to do it themselves.
Oh that reminds me I forgot to get a chemistry set…
I put myself in hospital for 10 days with a chemistry set when I was a kid.Magnesium tape is a basterd when mixed with phos. Happy days indeed.Still have the scars.
*Not being sarcastic. Just keep an eye on the kid.Some of those chemicals can burn to the bone.
They are 8 and 9 but yes I will certainly keep an eye on them…
I have done this with kids at school , great experiment!
Oh my god I remember doing this when I was younger – can’t wait to get the kids to do it!
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