Mayo hospital's 'cattle mart-esque' emergency department blasted
CONDITIONS in the Emergency Department at Mayo University Hospital (MUH) have been strongly criticised by a local public representative, after witnessing elderly patients awaiting treatment on Thursday evening last, while the HSE admit their surge plan was escalated.
Describing the ED as being 'cattle mart-esque', Independent Councillor Harry Barrett said he saw an elderly woman and a man with a serious leg injury waiting in the corridor, still in the care of paramedics and yet to be brought into the department.
"There was nowhere for them to sit, and I couldn't sit down myself," he said.
Several more patients elsewhere in the department were in a similar situation, he added. "All of the people I saw were elderly. Some of them were there six, eight, ten hours on a trolley."
Trolley Watch recorded 25 patients waiting on trolleys at MUH that day.
Councillor Barrett said he did not blame frontline staff for the conditions. "It's wrong. It's an abomination. It's primitive.
“I don't know how the nurses and doctors deal with it - it's the most stressful floorspace in the county.
“Don't blame the staff - blame the conditions they're working in."
He said the Emergency Department had become 'a traffic jam for our sickest elderly people' and was increasingly being used as a primary care service because the rest of the health system could not cope.
"The main problem is lack of primary care at the weekend," he said.
Councillor Barrett said district hospitals in Belmullet and Swinford were sitting half-empty while elderly patients travelled to Castlebar.
"We're in an era of telehealth. These patients had no one with them - they were brought in on their own. These people often have no one."
He called for a dedicated older people's medicine speciality at district hospital level, so patients could be treated closer to home.
He was also critical of the timeframe given for capacity upgrades at MUH. "In the meantime, we're told just hang on, two to three years. If you're more than six to eight hours in an ED, it will have an impact on your outcome."
HSE RESPONSE
A spokesperson for HSE West and North West confirmed 25 people were on trolleys at MUH on July 2 and said the surge plan was escalated. The spokesperson said there were no elderly patients waiting for beds within the department that evening, though there was a high presentation of elderly patients to the Emergency Department for emergency care.
This may reconcile with Councillor Barrett's account, as the patients he described were still with paramedics awaiting handover into the department, rather than admitted patients waiting on trolleys inside it.
The spokesperson said 150 people attended the Emergency Department that day, representing 15 to 20 per cent above normal attendance, a level sustained across last week.
"We acknowledge the numbers of patients awaiting extended periods of time for admission in busy emergency departments. This is not the standard of care that we want for our patients and regret that any patient would have to wait for care," the spokesperson said.
The HSE said Stage 1 of the Safe Staffing Framework has been implemented at MUH, in line with national policy, with the second stage due to be submitted as part of the 2027 service planning process.
On capacity, the spokesperson said an upgrade of the MUH Emergency Department and a new Acute Medical Assessment Unit was under way, with the appointed contractor due to begin the main build in August.
A new injury unit in Ballina is expected to open by the end of the third quarter of 2026.
A project team has also been established for a new acute ward block at MUH, alongside plans for a 50-bed community nursing unit in Belmullet and a 75-bed unit in Ballina.
The spokesperson said people with mild illness or non-urgent conditions should consider their local out-of-hours GP service or pharmacy in the first instance.
Councillor Barrett, however, said that this is unacceptable as it will leave vulnerable people in a sorry state if they have to attend the ED for the next two to three years.
“People will not put up with it,” he added.