About The Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital

How we started. About The Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital 

About The Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital, which was established in October 1992 by Mr Pat Harvey the then Hospital Manager and Mr Noel O’Connell, first chairperson.

This voluntary organisation, which was granted charitable status in 1995, has been responsible for raising in excess of €7 million from membership fees, donations, church gate collections and various fund-raising events throughout the North West since 1992. It has enabled Hospital Management to purchase equipment that otherwise would not be provided for in the normal health budget and therefore facilitate the development of new hospital services for the people of the North West.

The Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital has four core objectives:

• to provide additional medical equipment, facilities, services and patient comforts in the hospital which would not otherwise be available from central funding. In addition to provide financial assistance, for equipment/furniture Fundraising to provide additional medical equipment, facilities and services off the hospital campus for out-patient care and others with special needs, which would not otherwise be available from central funding;
• to provide transport, free of charge, for people from Donegal who require radium treatment in St. Luke’s Hospital in Dublin.
• to respond to ad hoc requests from wards/departments in LUH for assistance in improving the patient’s experience in hospital.
• To provide volunteers to support and augment ordinary hospital services, both in-patient and out-patients.

How Donated Funds are Used

There are two ways which funds received for the general benefit of Letterkenny University Hospital are disbursed within the hospital. The first is via an annual competition open to all hospital departments and members of staff. Through this, departments and staff can make submissions for funding to the Friends for specific projects, for example, purchasing a specific piece of equipment, arranging an excursion for patients or refurbishing a certain room.

The other way unrestricted donations are used is to fund specific campaigns. In the recent past, the Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital has provided the Oncology Bus, Cardiac Catherisation equipment for radiology, EBUS kit for endoscopy, monitoring equipment for paediatrics,  ventilation equipment for NNU and so on and various other pieces of equipment to facilitate new service developments in the hospital.

The current major project is to raise €250,000 for the implementation of phase 1 of teh Digital Theatre project.