Cllr Marie Therese Gallagher has welcomed unanimous support she received today at Donegal County Council for her motion for the re-opening of the 10 beds closed by the HSE in Dungloe Community Hospital.
Speaking after the passing of the motion in the Council chamber Cllr Marie Therese said: ”This is another step forward for the campaign to have these 10 beds reopened.
“Every member of Donegal County Council supported this motion and I think as a representative body of the people of Donegal this speaks volumes for the support for community hospitals in Donegal.
She said the campaign had received is overwhelming from all quarters, and the support within the Rosses Region was ‘unbelievable.’
Cllr Gallagher went on: “The care given by the staff and management of the hospital has been second to none, and I believe now the people of the Rosses would like to show their support for the hospital facilities and staff.
“This issue will not be resolved without the relaxing of the embargo on recruitment, union reps have put proposals to management to have 5 beds reopened as soon as possible, which is very welcome, but the feeling of the people at the local meeting was that not one bed should be allowed to remained closed as the need for these beds is still in our community.
“At our public meeting it was agreed to take a number of steps, within the past ten days, a deputation has met with the Local HSE management, we have also met with the Minister of State Dinny McGinley who is also in support of having these beds reopened. A deputation will also meet with the Minister for Health in the coming weeks.
“It has also been agreed by the public meeting to have a public demonstration in support of the hospital and that has been arranged for Saturday the 15th of June at 12 noon. And another public meeting will be arranged after all these steps that were agreed are taken to inform the public of the progress made and the next steps to be taken.”