Sligo-Leitrim Deputy Marian Harkin says many of the problems at Sligo University hospital can be traced back to historic underfunding.
The Independent TD was speaking following a letter sent to the Taoiseach and local representatives this week by 34 consultants at the hospital expressing their concerns about conditions in the facility.
Speaking on the Let's Talk show this afternoon, Deputy Harkin says the chronic overcrowding seems to have brought things to a head, but the root of the problem lies further back in time.
"If you go back 10 years ago, Sligo was promised this surgical block which would be surgical, maternity, emergency, radiology, theatres, ICU. Not a singleblock has been laid. After the crash, Sligo University Hospital lost 60 beds, proportionally the biggest cut in the country. It only got two or three of them back in the last two to three years. Some hospitals lost no beds. So there is historical under-investment and cutting of beds
