A report into what caused Letterkenny General Hospital to be flooded may never be released, the HSE has admitted.
A scene from the hospital. donegaldaily.com
A press conference to update the ongoing situation at the hospital was held this morning.
Paul Connors, the Director of Communications at the HSE, said they are anxious the report now being carried out by a team of civil engineers be made public.
But he admitted “We strive to make them public but there are lots of external bodies that may not let us do so.”
It is understood that a culvert at the rear of the hospital overflowed sending huge floods of water into the building.
Mr Connors added that he did not want to pre-empt what was in that report and said he could not put a timescale on when the report will be ready.
Meanwhile manager of the hospital, Sean Murphy, has reveled that while 40% of the footprint of the hospital was damaged, up to 70% of services were affected.
However Mr Murphy added that the recovery operation at the hospital was on schedule.
A fleet of workmen arrived yesterday to begin work on the renovation of the accident and emergency department which was badly hit by the flood.
“We remain on course to the schedule that we drew up last week and contractors are working 24/7 to refit the internal lay-outs to accept the accident and emergency department,” he said.
Mr Murphy added that patients are still being sent to Sligo General Hospital, Altnagelvin Hospital and Enniskillen Hospital and he thanked the hospitals for their help.
He added that he still could not put a figure on the damage caused but admitted it would be sizeable.
He also said he could not put a timeframe on when the hospital would be back to full functionality
The Director of Clinical Services at the hospital, Dr Paul O’Connor admitted that the damage to the hospital will result in delays for people on surgery waiting lists.
At present some surgery is being done at Sligo General Hospital.
“Some of the surgery is being diverted but it is inevitable there will be a detrimental affect on waiting lists but we will try to address that in our scope to do so,” he said.