Mayo Fine Gael TD, John O’Mahony, has stated that Mayo people who have to travel to Galway three times each week for dialysis treatment feel betrayed by another delay in providing this service in their own county. Deputy O’Mahony has just learned that the upgrading of the Dialysis Unit at Mayo General Hospital, which was scheduled to be completed before the end of this year, will not commence now until the first quarter of next year.
“There are Mayo patients who travel from the north of the county three times every week to Galway for their treatment which takes a five hours round trip each time, not counting time taken for treatment. They were elated when they realized that they would not have to travel to Galway after December but now all their hopes have been dashed.” he said.
Deputy O’Mahony said the reasons given for the postponement of the work don’t make sense. “The HSE are now saying that technical requirements are forcing the delay. They have mentioned congestion at the new facility, issues relating to health and safety, disability access, fire certification and other issues such as electrical and plumbing. All of those issues should have been known in advance when they gave their original undertaking that the work would be completed by the end of the year. Now we find that the work hasn’t even started.
“This is a hard one to swallow for patients and families, and I am calling on HSE to start this work immediately” he said.
