Record overcrowding at MUH

RECORD BREAKING Over 4,400 people had to wait on a trolley at MUH in 2022.

Figures of patients on trolleys 59 percent higher than previous record

Edwin McGreal

Overcrowding numbers at Mayo University Hospital have reached record levels for the second successive year.
Incredibly the numbers of people on trolleys at the hospital were up a staggering 59 percent on 2021.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Association (INMO) have released their annual Trolley Watch figures which revealed that a total of 4,407 patients at Mayo University Hospital were admitted to the hospital without receiving a bed in 2022.
That’s up from 2,776 in 2021, which was also a record. The previous record prior to that was in 2019, when there were 2,519 patients on trolleys at MUH. That was the first time since 2006 (2,285) when the numbers had surpassed 2,000 patients.
This year is the first time figures have went north of 3,000 and, indeed, 4,000. The lowest ever figure was in 2011 when there were 599 patients on trolleys, the only time since records began that the numbers were below 1,000.
Castlebar-based Cllr Michael Kilcoyne (Ind), who is a member of the HSE Regional Forum – West, said it is ‘way past time for action’.
“There appears to be no serious action planned though,” he told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday). “Not this year or next year anyway. We’re told it will be 2026 before the new Emergency Department is built. In China it takes six weeks to build a hospital, here it takes ten years to build a much needed new Emergency Department.
“We have a Primary Care Centre in Castlebar that is grossly under-utilised. It is open 35-36 hours a week but closed for 140 hours a week. If that was open to midnight every day it could take a lot of pressure off the Emergency Department in MUH. There are solutions to this problem,” he said.

Damning HIQA report
The annual Trolley Watch figures come less than a month after a damning HIQA report raised concerns about overcrowding at Mayo University Hospital’s Emergency Department.
MUH were found to be non-compliant in three areas, all relating to the Emergency Department. They were found to be non-complaint in terms of staffing in the Emergency Department and also with regards to ‘person centred care and support’, highlighting how overcrowding issues compromised the ‘dignity, privacy and autonomy’ of patients being ‘respected and promoted’.
The HIQA report was released a week after a Mayo News analysis heard staff in the hospital express serious concerns about the ongoing issue of overcrowding in the hospital’s Emergency Department and underlying causes of the issue.
They highlighted the need for more community services to reduce the number of people coming to the Emergency Department and better step down services to release people from hospital beds who no longer need acute care. This, in turn, they argued, reduces the likelihood of people languishing on trolleys in the Emergency Department and all the challenges that presents.
“We’re always talking about the increasing level of risk in the Emergency Department but the sad part is that this appears to be accepted as a given by the HSE,” one worker said.
Mayo Fine Gael TD Michael Ring told The Mayo News in December that he has been ‘inundated with complaints’ about overcrowding at the hospital.
Deputy Ring called for a forum of all stakeholders to be brought together to try to address the issue.
“I’ve been inundated with complaints from people who have been on trolleys and whose loved ones have been on trolleys. It is not fair to the nurses and doctors in there who have been under tremendous pressure,” Deputy Ring told The Mayo News.
However, Cllr Kilcoyne was critical of the three Government TDs in Mayo, Deputies Ring, Dillon and Calleary.
“They have the responsibility to ensure the health services in their constituency are up to standard. It is a disaster there right now but politically no one is creating a big row about it,” he said yesterday.
The INMO’s Trolley Watch count has been ongoing since 2006 and this was the worst year for overcrowding on record, across the country.
Over 121,318 patients, including 2,777 children, went without a bed in Irish hospitals in 2022.
“Our members have spent this year working in a constant state of crisis,” INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said.
“Nurses are unfortunately ending this year how they started it ­— firefighting intolerable overcrowding coupled with highly transmissable viruses and infections. INMO members in triage and emergency departments in Ireland’s busiest hospitals are highlighting how the conditions are comprising patient safety,” she added.