Come and see A&E for yourself, Minister

Date Published: 02-May-2008

Health Minister Mary Harney to go see for herself how patients are forced to wait hours on trolleys at A&E of University Hospital Galway during her visit to the city today.

Minister Harney visits the Enable Ireland facility at Séamus Quirke Road this morning to see the progress of their much needed hydrotherapy pool, but a member of the HSE West Regional Health Forum has challenged her to visit the hospital.

Cllr Pádraig Conneely said he had visited the over-crowded A&E last week after receiving an unprecedented number of letters and found “a chamber of horrors.”

One woman who had suffered a stroke had to wait 30 hours on a trolley before being
admitted. Her family was distraught, he said. Another man in his eighties had to suffer the indignity of having to wait 14 hours on a trolley because of the understaffing of the unit, said Cllr Conneely.

“And last week, there were patients on trolleys in the public waiting area of the unit because they had nowhere else to put them and no empty beds on the wards.

“But, I have also received letters of complaints from staff members, from overworked junior doctors to nurses who believe more beds could be opened if there were more nurses.

“I have no problem with ……………