Mayo TD: Health Minister's hospital letter is a whitewash
Mayo Aontú TD Paul Lawless has accused the Minister for Health of “whitewashing reality” in her letter to Mayo representatives, saying it offers excuses, not answers for the ongoing crisis at Mayo University Hospital (MUH).
He elaborated: “The minister’s letter is full of spin about ‘operational grip’ and ‘task teams’, but it says nothing to the staff on the floor who feel abandoned and blamed.
"“We now know that the safe staffing framework audit for Mayo was completed back in 2021—yet it’s only now, four years later, that it’s finally being implemented.
"When I raised the staffing crisis with the minister a few weeks ago, she told me Mayo wasn’t short-staffed and that the issue was weekend discharges.
"Two weeks later, she approved Stage 1 of the very staffing plan she said wasn’t needed. You couldn’t make it up.”
Deputy Lawless revealed that Galway University Hospital, a Model 4 hospital, received its safe staffing rollout two years ago, and that Sligo, Letterkenny, and Portiuncula - all Model 3 hospitals like Mayo—implemented theirs 18 months ago.
“So why was Mayo left to struggle alone?” he asked.
“The reason I was given was a ‘pay and numbers strategy’- a recruitment freeze dressed up in bureaucracy. It’s unacceptable. The delay has real consequences for both patients and staff who’ve been firefighting for years without proper resourcing.”
He also criticised the Minister’s focus on weekend discharges as a deflection.
“To blame ED staff for low weekend discharges is simply unfair,” he said.
“Primary care closes on Fridays, home care packages can’t be processed, and step-down facilities in Mayo often don’t take weekend transfers.
"It’s not that staff aren’t trying - it’s that the system itself shuts down for the weekend. The minister knows this but chooses to scapegoat the very people keeping the doors open.”
Lawless said the result of these systemic failures is visible every day in MUH.
“Right now, there are eight patients in Mayo University Hospital who are medically discharged but have nowhere to go.
"Across the country, there are over 420 people trapped in the same situation.
"They’re blocking acute beds, not because doctors haven’t done their jobs, but because the State hasn’t provided the next step of care. These are human beings, not statistics.”
Following clarification received from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which is currently in negotiations with the HSE under the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Deputy Lawless said the government’s recent staffing announcements are more optics than outcomes.
“The INMO has made it crystal clear - the proposed 15.5 WTE increase in MUH’s emergency department doesn’t fix the problem.
"It might look good on paper, but it doesn’t close the existing gaps between the number of funded posts and the nurses actually on the floor,” he said.
“The truth is the emergency department has been running below safe staffing thresholds since 2023, and serious engagement only began when nurses threatened industrial action.
"That tells you everything about how this government listens — it takes a strike threat for them to act.”
Deputy Lawless added that the prospect of industrial action remains real, with INMO members demanding that their safety and that of their patients finally be protected through the full implementation of the Safe Staffing Framework.
“This government keeps putting spreadsheets above stethoscopes,” he said.
“You don’t fix a crisis with columns and calculations - you fix it with people. Staff are tired of headlines and half-measures. What they want is simple: respect, resources, and real relief at the bedside.”
“The staff in Mayo feel let down and unlistened to. They’ve worked through intolerable pressure for years, only to be told by the minister that the hospital isn’t short-staffed. That’s not leadership - that’s gaslighting.
“Mayo’s healthcare workers don’t need another letter. They need more colleagues, more step-down beds, and a government that stops talking and starts listening,” he added.