Barrett calls Mayo trolley numbers 'shocking’
Independent local election candidate for Castlebar, Harry Barrett, has said the number of patients on trolleys at Mayo General Hospital is ‘shocking’ and ‘not normal’.
Local election candidate Harry Barrett is ‘shocked’ by the high trolley numbers at Mayo University Hospital.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) trolley watch revealed that this past January saw 338 patients go without a bed in the hospital, just a marginal improvement on last year’s 349.
Today's trolley watch reported 19 people on trolleys in Mayo University Hospital.
Mr Barrett called on councillors and TD's to 'do more' to help solve the issue. He said the 'numbers are not improving and people are still suffering'.
"Why is it accepted as normal that 19 sick patients, many of them frail and elderly, are left waiting for hours and hours on trolleys to access healthcare?” said the former Castlebar Town Councillor.
Last week, Independent Local Election candidate Michael Kilcoyne said the HSE had not taken ‘adequate steps’ to tackle the bed availability crisis, and shared his concerns over the hospital's ability to cater for possible illness outbreaks.
Mr Barrett said our health system must give elderly people ‘a level of dignity, and this ongoing chaos in A&E does not provide dignity in any sense’.
Mr Barrett pledged to stand for the Dáil to campaign against these conditions, should they not improve.