Mayo A&E manned by skeletal staff for two days - TD

MAYO Fianna Fáil Deputy Lisa Chambers has said it is very worrying to receive reports of only three nurses working in the emergency department at Mayo University Hospital (MUH) last Thursday (August 18) and only two on Friday (August 19), due to a number of nurses being out sick.

She elaborated: “It appears there was no cover available to deal with the nurses who were out sick, leaving what can only be described as a skeletal nursing staff at one of the country's busiest emergency departments.

'MUH emergency department had come under pressure over the last number of years with increased demand as confirmed by the HSE itself.

'The closure of Roscommon emergency department by the last government, along with an aging population and pressure from the Galway hospitals had led to this increased demand on Mayo's hospital.

'The HSE and MUH are very well aware of this. It was not that long ago that I highlighted queues reaching out to the cafe area in the hospital as patients over flowed from the emergency department.

'Given the hospital and the HSE are aware of the huge demands on MUH emergency department and past failings in terms of treating patients in a timely manner, it is inexplicable that a situation would be allowed to arise where only three nurses were present on one day and only two the following day.

“There needs to be staff available to cover nurses when they are off sick. Clearly this is putting patient welfare and safety at risk and these are totally unacceptable conditions for staff to work in, how can those nurses working on those days be expected to cope with such a work load.

The fact of the matter is that on those two days MHU's emergency department was not fully staffed and certainly not staffed for an emergency situation.'

The Castlebar-based TD called on the Minister for Health, Simon Harris and the HSE to explain how this situation arose and whether there were any adverse affects on patients on those two days due to the lack of staff.

“I also want assurances that this will not happen again, 'added Depety Chambers.