Nearly 6,000 local patients have had their appointments cancelled in three months

Nearly 5,800 patients in the west and northwest have had their operations, procedures or appointments cancelled in the first three months of this year.

This is the Saolta University Health Care Group, which includes the university hospitals of Roscommon, Portiuncula, Sligo and Galway.

It emerged yesterday that hospitals in Galway and Sligo were among the five most overcrowded in the country last month.

Elphin councillor Valerie Byrne, of the Roscommon Hospital Action Committee, says many people with serious illnesses are affected by the cancellations.

She said: “There are people who, if they got their cancer treatment, could be saved. That’s where it’s at.”

“This needs to be addressed immediately. Five thousand people in the first three months – I’m really, really shocked by the magnitude of that number.

“I’m sure part of it is the embargoes (on recruitment). They’re being lifted in some places, but not in others.

“We are seriously short of doctors, nurses and consultants.”