Bantry General Hospital staffing
Deputy Michael Collins says assurances that Bantry General Hospital would get a full-time replacement consultant have not been honoured and warns the hospital is being downgraded. The Taoiseach has no information but undertakes to seek a reply from the Department of Health.
Some 12 months ago we were assured that a consultant who was retiring in Bantry General Hospital would be replaced by a full-time consultant. We have now found out that no full-time replacement has been appointed and that the standing consultant is leaving Bantry General Hospital. This, coupled with the retirement of one of the two local injury doctors who has not been replaced either, raises serious questions about the Government's commitment to the hospital which is the most remote in Ireland and serves a vast area of west Cork and County Kerry. We cannot sit idly by and allow it to be downgraded. Will the Taoiseach give an honest assurance that both positions in Bantry General Hospital will be filled immediately by full-time replacements?
