Mayo appeal as hospital overcrowding and cancellations surge
A Mayo TD has called for urgent action to address treatment cancellation and emergency department overcrowding for the Saolta Hospitals Group, which serves the western region, including Mayo University Hospital.
Deputy Rose Conway Walsh's comments follow a meeting with the executive management team for the group.
She warned that the group is under severe pressure and strain from Covid and non-Covid care, with major capital projects taking far too long to deliver additional capacity.
The Erris-based represenative elaborated: “The management confirmed what we have known for some time that Mayo University Hospital is under severe pressure.
“Saolta Hospitals are facing huge challenges, more than any other hospital group, as they are every year because they do not have the capacity to deal with winter surges.
“The increase in unscheduled emergency care and Covid care is placing huge pressure across all their hospitals because they do not have enough beds and staff, and never have.
“I sought clarity on flexible contracts for nurses as this was an issue that was raised with me during the recent Nurses protest outside MUH.
"I was assured that contract hours could be devised to meet the family needs of nurses while maximising the availability of nursing skills in Mayo.
“We now learn that 20 ICU beds promised by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to be delivered by the end of December will not be opened until September 2022.
“There is a major need across all sites for large capital investment, and there are applications in which have not been funded or expedited by government for much-needed bed capacity.
“It will be into next year before works start on these and likely next winter before the capacity is in place because the government failed to expedite these projects in the Budget for 2021.
“This isn’t good enough and patients here in Mayo are paying the price for the government’s lack of planning and investment.
“Again, I raised the issue of stepdown and respite capacity in Belmullet Hospital as well as the turnaround times for ambulances at MUH.
“There is a lack of urgency about this from government, and both the capital approval and recruitment processes are taking far too long due to bureaucracy.
“The integration of primary, community, and acute care sectors, with adequate stepdown facilities, is happening at a snail’s pace, and there is a looming crisis in primary care as more GPs are set to retire in the West than there are replacements in the coming years.
“People in Mayo deserve better. The time is long passed for a serious plan to tackle the multiple crises facing the health service, particularly in the western region and urgent action is needed now.”