Mayo TD raises concerns over ‘horrendous’ conditions at MUH after late-night visit 

Mayo TD Paul Lawless has raised concerns over lengthy waiting times, staffing levels, and limited capacity at Mayo University Hospital (MUH) following a late-night visit on Tuesday.

Deputy Lawless said he visited MUH after receiving a call from a constituent who had waited more than 24 hours in the Emergency Department (ED) to be admitted.

Posting on social media after his visit, the Aontú representative said he had spoken with staff and patients and witnessed “first-hand” the conditions inside the hospital.

“Patients on trolleys and chairs for 24+ hours. No dignity, no privacy, corridors turned into wards. Staff doing their best in impossible conditions. This is what I witnessed tonight at MUH,” he wrote.

Deputy Lawless said waits of more than 24 hours for admission were “becoming an increasingly regular situation” at MUH. 

“In many cases patients are waiting over 24 hours to be admitted, and they’re waiting in the most horrendous circumstances,” he said.

He stated that patients were left waiting on trolleys and chairs, with the ED operating in a space that is “incredibly cramped and limited”.

“Many patients are actually being treated on trolleys in nooks and crannies, where trolleys can barely pass each other."

“It is simply wrong and so incredibly sad to think that this is what is happening to so many of our most vulnerable patients in Mayo.” 

Deputy Lawless said he would raise the issue with Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, claiming that the Safe Staffing Threshold is not being reached at MUH on a regular basis.

"Over the previous 48 hours, about 300 people had presented to the emergency department, which shows the level of pressure the hospital is under,” he said. 

“The staff in the hospital are working incredibly hard, but we simply don't have enough of them. We have a problem too in terms of physical space and capacity in the hospital.” 

He added that patient numbers were increasing year on year in the county, noting that the ED at MUH saw more patients than ever before last year.

Deputy Lawless also criticised Government spending, saying: “Despite all of this, the Government have money to waste on bike shelters, on printers. 

“In two years alone, the government spent €80 million in Mayo on migrant accommodation.

“We have over €2m of taxpayers' money to spend on a meeting room in Mayo County Council’s chamber that is largely used for meetings once a month.

“Yet we don't have adequate investment in Mayo's most important and vital piece of infrastructure - our hospital.

“We can’t prioritise the most vulnerable people, the most vulnerable citizens that come here, oftentimes just once, twice, in their lives, in their most difficult hours here in the Emergency Department."