The HSE National Director of Estates has announced that Letterkenny Hospital has been allocated €4.4m to develop a new Endoscopy Unit which will meet international accreditation standards.

This capital allocation includes almost €1.2m to purchase new Endoscopy equipment, with the remaining €3.2m available to fund building refurbishment and enabling works to support this new development. The project, which will start this year, will take approximately 2 1/2 years to complete and will allow Letterkenny Hospital to progress its candidacy to become a referral centre for the National Colorectal Screening Programme.

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The Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly T.D. has welcomed this announcement, stating that it gives further effect to the commitments in the Programme for Government on cancer screening services. He stated: "I am delighted that people in the North West will have access to a state of the art, custom built, endoscopy facility; having visited the hospital in recent months to open their new Medical Block and Emergency Department, I am confident that developments such as these are enhancing the quality and safety of patient care in the North West, providing care to international standards in appropriate surroundings."

Ms Deirdre Diver, Clinical Nurse Manager commented: "We are delighted with this announcement, we have waited many years for our new unit, this will be of great benefit to the people of Donegal requiring endoscopy procedures. It will allow us to continue to provide a quality patient centred service and become a centre for Colorectal screening in the near future.

"The new Endoscopy Unit will be one of the major developments to facilitate the hospital's programme of the continued major development of clinical services for our patients."

(CD)