Hospital visitors left in confusion

The lack of a receptionist at the front desk in University Hospital Galway outside of regular office hours is causing unnecessary confusion among members of the public.

The reception of the biggest hospital in the west region is staffed until 5.30pm during the week and there is no dedicated receptionist on duty over the weekend.

This has been the case for a number of years. A spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive (HSE) said there had never been a full- time receptionist at the front desk on a 24-hour basis.

“In the evenings and at weekends, staff who also perform other duties are based at the front desk; these staff may be called away from the front desk in the course of their duties,” she stated.

The lack of a staffed reception has left visitors wandering all over the hospital trying to find patients.

Now is not the best environment to have members of the public walking between the wards with the outbreak of several bugs over the winter, which are highly contagious.

In the emergency department recently there were up to 44 patients on trolleys waiting to get a bed due to overcrowding. Doctors warned last week that overcrowding in the department was likely to result in cross-infection.

The situation was made even worse when phone lines were out of action in or out of the hospital for several hours due to the recent stormy weather.

Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients Association believes the public has enough to deal with without having to navigate themselves across an enormous medical campus without proper assistance.

“Certainly we’d call on the management of the hospital to consider having one staff member in the reception area every evening and at the weekends,” he stated.

“It’s a very big hospital and very, very busy. Cutting back on staff at reception might well spill over onto staff elsewhere in the hospital who are already under enough pressure.”