Protest Planned Over Bantry General Hospital Admissions Chaos

A protest has been planned to highlight the problems at Bantry General Hospital.

Issues of understaffing at the hospital have led to patients being redirected to Cork University Hospital, which is an hour and a half away.

This is set to continue until at least next month, when the vacant positions are expected to be filled. The HSE are said to be struggling to hire locum consultant general physicians to temporarily cover the loss of one of the hospital's three existing consulting physicians.

"GPs in BGH catchment area have been advised of the current situation, and members of the public are advised to consider other care options before attending the Medical Assessment Unit at BGH," the hospital's management said in a statement.

"It is going to get worse," said Dr Laura Cullen, a GP based in Marino Medical Centre in Bantry. "Our big concern as GPs locally is that eventually it will lead to a critical incident."

"It is a massive hit to the community," Cullen added. "Patients come from all over West Cork. We have patients coming from as far as Castletownbere who would be two hours at speed away from Cork City."

Cullen revealed that one of her patients was made to wait for three hours for an ambulance to bring them to Cork University Hospital.

A protest has been scheduled to take place at 1pm at The Square, Bantry.