Mayo University Hospital is a disaster for patients says local councillor

A MAYO councillor has described Mayo University Hospital as a disaster after receiving a number of complaints from people who attended hospital in the last week.

Mayo University Hospital experienced a difficult number of days last week with the number of patients waiting on trolleys for a bed reaching a high of 40 patients on Wednesday morning. This prompted the management of Mayo University Hospital to announce that it is 'under significant pressure' with patients attending the Emergency Department advised to expect long waiting lists.

Independent Mayo County Councillor Michael Kilcoyne, who is also a member of the HSE Regional Health Forum West, told The Mayo News that he received a number of complaints from members of the public regarding their experience in the hospital.

“The hospital is a disaster,” he said. “I'd say in the last week I must have got five or six complaints in relation to the hospital and these were serious complaints. There were 40 people waiting on trolleys on one day last week. People are lying on trolleys with no dignity and it is terrible stuff. People are entitled to better than that.”

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The Castlebar-based councillor explained that in one situation a woman told him she brought her ill nine-month old child to the hospital only for a doctor to tell her the baby was fine and to go home. He said when she got home, the baby fell ill again and her GP advised her to bring the baby straight to Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Dublin as the baby was gravely ill.

Cllr Kilcoyne said he will be raising the complaints he received from constituents at the next regional health forum meeting and would be demanding answers on the running of the hospital. He claimed that people in the county were losing faith with their local hospital.

“People are now leaving Mayo University Hospital and going to other hospitals in Galway and Sligo and that is bad for the hospital. That is a result of very poor service and waiting at Mayo University Hospital and it's not good enough.

“We have three government TDs and two of them are ministers and we might as well have none. The hospital is not a priority for the Department of Health when we won't have a new A&E for at least another three years. Those who are in charge and responsible for fixing it are doing a poor job of it,” he said.