"We are now told that it will take three years for the first patients to be seen in the new extended Emergency Department in Mayo University Hospital. This is far too long and I am calling now on government TDs in this county to push for rapid action on equipping our District Hospitals to provide an alternative pathway to the Emergency Department," local election candidate, Harry Barrett, said this week.
Barrett was speaking in the wake of new information from hospital management this week confirming that there will be a three-year lead-in to the completion of the new extention to the Emergency Department in the hospital.
He continued, "Sick, elderly patients in this county cannot wait a further three years with the record-breaking trolley numbers that we see every other day now in Mayo University Hospital. The crisis is having a shocking effect on the health of older people and I cannot accept this. I completely agree with hospital manager, Catherine Donohue, who says that alternatives to the Emergency Department have now to be a priority, while we wait for the new unit to be completed.
"She spoke this week of finding alternative pathways for elderly patients to be found in the community, rather than sending them to the emergency department. I completely agree with this and now call on this government and its local TDs to campaign vigorously for the staff, beds and equipment needed to resource and revamp our district hospitals. Having elderly patients treated in their own communities and in their own District Hospital with sufficient staff and modern equipment has to be a major solution to this trolley crisis.
"This will also include recruiting a further 40 new GPs to meet capacity and to work within this alternative pathways system.
"Last week we had an Taoiseach witnessing sick, elderly people in this community lying on trolleys for hours in our local emergency department. The least this government could do now, to rectify this appalling situation, would be to spend significant money on the District Hospitals that were built nearly 100 years ago to treat people in their own communities. Letting these hospitals degrade over the years has turned out to be a colossal mistake."
