Áine Ryan
aineryan@mayonews.ie
MINISTER for Health, James Reilly, has been asked to address concerns about travel distances for heart attack patients in rural Mayo. Deputy Michelle Mulherin raised the issue after The Mayo News revealed last week that the HSE had moved to dismiss suggestions by the coroner for south Mayo, John O’Dwyer, that people suffering from heart attacks should, on occasions, ‘bypass’ Mayo General Hospital (MGH) and go directly to the cardiac centre of excellence at Galway University Hospital.
Mr O’Dwyer was referring to the circumstances around the death of 74-year-old Eneas McDonnell whose transfer from MGH to the specialist unit in Galway was considerable delayed, despite the fact that there was an ambulance available at the nearby Sacred Heart Home, Castlebar.
In a Parliamentary Question, Ms Mulherin said the matters raised at the Coroner’s Court ‘give cause for considerable concern as to the efficacy of treatment available to people who suffer a heart attack in certain parts of Mayo’. She noted that some heart attack patients were ‘liable to experience poorer outcomes because the travel time to their nearest Cardiac Specialist Unit at University hospital Galway is not within the medically desired time of 90 minutes’.
“It is very clear that there are large geographical areas in County Mayo, including Ballina, Belmullet and North Mayo that are not within the medically desired 90 minutes of the Cardiac Specialist Unit in University Hospital Galway. It is not acceptable that some Mayo heart attack patients could have poorer medical outcomes because of where they live and proper provision should be made for them including where appropriate air ambulance transport,” Ms Mulherin said.
She confirmed she has raised these concerns with HSE management, the Ambulance Services as well as the Minister for Health.
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