Featured photo: From left: Dr Aine Keating , Dr Louise Moran, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Dr Pádraig McGuinness, Dr Paul O’Connor and Mr Michael Surgrue at a meeting at Letterkenny University Hospital today, Monday 28th July.
Leading local clinicians have described the granting of a surgical hub for Letterkenny University Hospital as a massive win for Donegal.
The Minister for Health announced today that two surgical hubs will be delivered in the north west – in both Letterkenny and Sligo – to expand capacity for day case surgeries and minor procedures.
While the HSE was initially set to put forward a business case for Sligo only, the proposal for a Letterkenny hub was a hard-fought win by local representatives and medics.
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she gave the green light to the two hubs at the weekend, following receipt of a business case from the CEO of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Bernard Gloster.
Local doctors and medical professionals in Donegal have today warmly welcomed the Minister’s decision, which they say is based on hard facts.
In recent months, a grouping of 171 doctors and consultants from across Donegal have been lobbying for a surgical hub in Letterkenny through presentations of objective evidence on the region’s needs.
Dr Aine Keating, Consultant in Emergency Medicine in LUH said: “We as clinicians have identified that there has been an inequity in health care over the last few years, and this has been impacting on patients’ healthcare and access to diagnostics and health care in the region.
“This today, is firm evidence that the government has confidence in us, has confidence in our hospital and confidence in delivering health care for the region.
“This is a massive win for Donegal.”
Dr Keating said the campaign has always been about the patients of Donegal.
“This now is going to give us momentum and give us positivity in the hospital, to try and build resources and deliver effective clinical care,” she said.
The two-theatre surgical hub, which will focus on minor keyhole surgeries and day case general surgeries, will reduce the number of elective surgeries cancelled at LUH due to the need to admit patients presenting to the Emergency Department.
“A surgical hub is really important in taking away from the acute hospital needs,” explained Dr Keating.
“At the minute, in A&E you might have 13 or 14 patients waiting for a bed in the hospital. If they can’t locate a bed for them, which is often every day, they will cancel electives in order to get patients into the hospital so they can be treated.
“If you put away the electives and put them into a ring-fenced surgical hub that is stand-alone, not within the acute hospital, then you stop the cancellations and you allow a better flow of elective care going through the hospital, not impacting on the acute care
“It’s a win-win for all the patients here.”
Dr Keating added that the surgical hub, which has a two-to-three-year timeline for delivery, will also improve the attractiveness of the hospital in terms of recruiting staff.
“What we have to do is go behind the scenes, work hard and try and get this infrastructure built in our two to three-year timeline. That’s our aim.”
Speaking after a meeting with the Health Minister today, Dr Pádraig McGuinness, a GP based in Fanad, said: “It’s a great statement of intent that Letterkenny University Hospital is here to stay, and it’s going to get bigger and better.”
Dr Keating added: “It shows that this Minister for Health is a data driven minister. She wanted to see the hard facts. When you look at the evidence that Donegal, this hospital here, is the second largest Model 3 hospital that we have, with 54,000 annual A&E attendances, that we serve a region of over 150,000 people, that we have a great need for healthcare, and when you look at that, you can’t deny what is needed.”
Dr McGuinness praised the collective campaign of clinicians and Donegal politicians who were all ‘on the one hymn sheet’.
“We have to all be on the same team, working together to make this the best hospital that it can be.”
Senator Manus Boyle, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Minister of State Charlie McConalogue and Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher at Letterkenny University Hospital, Monday 28th July
The Minister for Health said that meetings with local professionals and Oireachtas members helped her reach a decision she believes is the right one.
“This was the right decision from a data perspective and planning for the future perspective, it’s nothing political, this is the right thing for Donegal and for the north west. I would hope that we see the benefit of these two surgical hubs delivering for people, to get quicker surgeries, within a very short time,” she said.
Minister Carroll MacNeill added: “I am so grateful and appreciative of all the engagement that my Oireachtas colleagues have put in and of the engagement of the clinicians and management of this hospital have put in, and I think together, as a team, we have made the right decision to have two surgical hubs in this region.
“I am looking forward to getting on with it and getting it delivered, built, and people treated there as soon as may be.”
Donegal clinicians welcome surgical hub as a win-win for all patients was last modified: July 28th, 2025 by Rachel McLaughlin