Hospital flooded after cutbacks led to blocked drains

Cutbacks at Donegal County Council meant gullies and drains outside Letter-kenny General Hospital had not been cleaned or maintained for seven months.

The council previously hired the services of Letterkenny-based DS Environmental to keep them clear of dirt and debris — but stopped hiring its services due to a lack of funds.

As a result, debris, and grass could be seen blocking drains, leaving floodwaters with nowhere to go.

A council source admitted they finally cleared the gullies — the day after floods caused millions of euro worth of damage at Letterkenny General Hospital — and described it as “too little, too late”.

In a statement yesterday, Donegal County Council said: “The council have never cleaned gullies within the hospital grounds as they do not fall under our remit. With regards to the gullies on the R229 [formerly N56], between the hospital roundabout and the Knocknamona roundabout, these were cleaned by the county council in Dec 2012.”

The emergency & department at Letterkenny remained closed yesterday as the clean-up operation continued.

A source close to the council revealed yesterday that huge mistakes had been made.

He said: “There is a pipe running alongside the hospital that is far too small to carry the amount of water that it’s supposed to carry. Yes, the rain that caused all that flooding was freak rain, it wasn’t expected, but it shouldn’t have caused that much damage. All the water ran down the hill from the estates above the hospital and it had nowhere to go.

“The hospital is wrecked. The water was two feet up the walls. The kitchen has been wiped out, the lab is closed down, and coronary care unit is closed. The Mount Errigal hotel is doing all the catering. It’s so sad to see the hospital the way it is.

“The council doesn’t have any money. They’re not cleaning the drains at all. It’s a county-wide problem and there are serious issues with everything from the gullies to the sewerage treatment plants — they’re overflowing into lakes and rivers. All of the water that came into the hospital was contaminated with sewerage. There’s a combined system that means the storm drains are linked up to the foul and sewage system.”

A spokesman for DS Environmental yesterday confirmed it had been ‘several months’ since any maintenance or cleaning work had been carried out on gullies or drains on behalf of Donegal County Council.

The HSE was contacted but did not respond.