The non-nursing support staff at Mayo General hospital are to ballot over the coming week over possible industrial action over the falling standards of hygiene in the hospital. The workers are concerned about the standard of hygiene in the hospital and its decline over the past number of years. SIPTU official and Mayor of Castlebar, Cllr Michael Kilcoyne told the Mayo Advertiser that the staff concerns have become so grave they have been left with no choice but to ballot to raise the issue for the safety of all patients in the hospital.
“Mayo General has been near the bottom of the hygiene audits for the past number of years, that’s not down to the staff they are doing the best that they can to keep the standards up. But the numbers of staff have continued to drop with people not being replaced when they retire or leave or moved to other positions in the hospital. It has now come to the point where the staff have become so concerned about the safety for patients they’ve had to do it. The HSE say they can’t replace them, but they can still give out contracts to companies to do cleaning who come in and have people doing a couple of hours a day, and that’s not good enough.
‘Just another step to hospital becoming a glorified nursing home’
Kilcoyne also went on to say that this was just another step towards Mayo General becoming a glorified nursing home. “I’m saying that in less than 10 years you’ll probably see Mayo General come little more than an glorified nursing home. You saw the beginning with the taking away of the cancer services, and I have heard on the grapevine there are other areas being looked at to be cut. You’ll end up with an accident and emergency department if you cut your finger and somewhere for you to go for your last days. The way things are going there will only be two hospitals in the west, one in Sligo and the other in Galway, with us left in the middle with nothing.” Kilcoyne went on to call for the two Government TDs in the county to give commitments to the future of the hospital. “I’m calling on the two Government TDs to give firm commitments on the future of the hospital, not like the ones we got on the cancer services but meaningful ones. I’m especially calling on Deputy Dara Calleary, whose now a Minister of State, to give us a firm commitment.”
