Search
06 Sept 2025
Search
06 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Letterkenny University Hospital
Medical professionals campaigning for a surgical hub at Letterkenny University Hospital have expressed serious concern following confirmation from Minister Marian Harkin that her lobbying efforts secured the hub for Sligo as part of her support for the current Government.
Minister Harkin confirmed on Friday that the decision to site the surgical hub in Sligo formed part of her negotiations during the Programme for Government.
Responding to the revelation, Dr Padraig McGuinness, one of the doctors behind the campaign for a surgical hub in Letterkenny stated: “It’s all making a little more sense now. The objective evidence—from clinical need to geography, patient population, volume of day services, and co-location with surgical specialties—clearly shows that Letterkenny University Hospital is the optimal location if only one surgical hub is to be delivered.
READ NEXT: In pictures: Monsignor Pat Lynch celebrates his jubilee in Desertegney
“This decision now appears to have been made purely on political grounds, at the expense of the 160,000 patients living in Donegal. This was one of the deals done to secure support from Deputy Lowry’s independents”.
Dr Aine Keating, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at LUH, added: “We simply cannot let this stand. We are due to meet the Minister again on Tuesday evening and will present further data. If Sligo has indeed been granted a hub as part of a political agreement, then in the interests of fairness, equity of access, and burden of need, we believe a second surgical hub must be delivered concurrently at Letterkenny University Hospital.”
The group of doctors will meet with Minister for Health, Dr Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, on Tuesday evening to continue discussions and present new clinical and demographic data supporting their campaign.
Dr McGuinness concluded: “If Sligo is granted a hub on political grounds and Letterkenny is not, resulting in worse outcomes for Donegal patients, we will be left with no choice but to publicly demonstrate the strength of local opposition and concern.”
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
