*Senator Timmy Dooley (FF). Photograph: Joe Buckley
MEDICAL CONSULTANTS at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) have come under fire from a Clare Senator.
Addressing Fianna Fáil delegates at a selection convention in Hotel Woodstock on Tuesday night, Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) blamed consultants as a factor for the continued overcrowding of patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
He recalled that it was “really challenging in 2009 when the Government on the advice of experts removed the A&E in Ennis, we got berated and still do on occasion but we didn’t play popular politics, we couldn’t and we suffered politically as a result”.
Senator Dooley said he “almost came to blows” with HSE officials when during a meeting with Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF) that he raised “serious issues” and concerns regarding consultants at UHL.
“Nobody wants to challenge the consultants, they operate to a different standard at UHL than any other hospital in the country, that is why we have more patients on trolleys than any other hospital in the country,” he stated. Dooley added, “the situation won’t change until somebody stands up to the way in which the hospital is ran”.
