TD calls for immediate review of “management failings” at Mayo University Hospital
Paul Lawless TD has called for an urgent and thorough review of the management failures that have driven the staffing crisis at Mayo University Hospital.
“I welcome that the Minister has taken the time to research the issues at MUH and provided important introductory answers on the questions I have been pressing for many years, and I welcome her greater openness compared to her predecessors in working towards a resolution,” said Deputy Lawless.
“But let us be frank - it should never have taken this long. While reports were shuffled from desk to desk, patients suffered, frontline staff soldiered on, and local management refused to face the truth. That neglect is indefensible.”
Deputy Lawless said families in Mayo deserve far better than the chaos they have endured.
“Consider the reality: patients left in pain on trolleys in overcrowded corridors, ambulances parked outside for 13 hours because there was no staff to take handover, and wards that fall silent at weekends while the emergency department buckles under intolerable strain.
These are not abstract inefficiencies - they are human tragedies visited upon ordinary Mayo families in their hour of need.”
He continued: “I have spoken to nurses who are exhausted beyond measure, missing breaks, working unsafe hours, and still expected to carry on without complaint.
"New recruits, instead of being nurtured, are flung into the deep end because there is simply no capacity to train them. Student nurses are telling me openly that the system to support them simply doesn’t exist. This is not how you build a workforce - it is how you break one.”
Deputy Lawless said the review must not only measure but also hold accountable.
“Mayo needs management that will take responsibility for these failures. If they will not, they must be shown the door.
"Our nurses and doctors cannot keep shouldering the consequences of mismanagement. And Mayo families cannot be left to wonder if their loved ones will receive proper care simply because illness strikes on a Saturday night instead of a Monday morning.”
He concluded: “The time for excuses has passed. This review must deliver immediate reform - seven-day rostering, the Safe Staffing Framework, and above all, accountability.
"Only then can Mayo University Hospital offer the safety, dignity and reassurance that every patient, every family in this county deserves.
"I am happy to work closely with the minister and any other TD to bring us closer to resolving this problem that is escalating for years”