Election candidate says MUH is at breaking point

Castlebar election candidate Harry Barrett says Mayo University Hospital is at breaking point after ambulances backed up outside on Friday morning, leaving patients sitting in ambulances for a number of hours. The former Town Councillor says an emergency meeting is urgently required before lives are lost.

"There were up to to eight ambulances backed up outside Mayo University Hospital between 1 and 2am last night from every area of the county, with some patients sitting in ambulances for up to five hours. I was contacted this morning by a concerned member of staff who alleges that people waiting in the Emergency Department itself would have been there for at least 10 hours."

Barrett says that the impact on staff is totally unacceptable with one nurse who started at 8pm on Thursday evening not getting her first break until 6am on Friday morning.

"I am calling for an emergency meeting of management in Mayo University Hospital to address this crazy system. To have ambulances backed up outside the hospital is a very dangerous situation if a major accident were to occur and ambulances were needed elsewhere.

"The needless suffering of patients and crazy pressure on staff has to end and is a direct result of poor planning and the five-day-week nature of our health system here in Mayo. A system where everything shuts down at 5pm on a Friday, and people are then sent to hospital as a last resort because waiting times for a doctor around the county are too long. This is crazy.

"The solution is very simple, but HSE bosses seem unable to plan for it. People have to be given treatment in their own local areas, especially after hours and at the weekends. Carrying on like this is going to cost lives especially when ambulances are backed up outside a hospital.

"People must stand up and demand a safer system than this chaos and I am asking people to contact their local TD demanding that the HSE put in place medical cover in every area of the county, especially at the weekends and out of hours."

The Mayo News is awaiting a response from Saolta about the situation at the hospital on Friday morning.