Minister ‘shocked’ on surprise visit to hospital

Date Published: 30-Jun-2011

By Dara Bradley

Minister for Health Dr James Reilly was shocked by scenes at the Emergency Department of University Hospital Galway when he made an impromptu and unannounced visit yesterday.

There were 23 patients lying on trolleys in corridors waiting for beds to become available, one of them an elderly man who was in his 20th hour on a trolley.

Minister Reilly, who was in Galway at an official function at NUI Galway, decided ‘on the spur of the moment’ to visit UHG at 10am on Thursday to see firsthand the overcrowding situation at the city hospital, which has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in local and national press, consistently being rated the worst performing in the country in the HSE’s monthly Healthstat reports.

Minister Reilly gave only a few minutes’ notice to UHG, ringing ahead to announce his visit just as his ministerial car was pulling in the hospital gates.

When he arrived 23 patients were languishing on trolleys in the corridors of the Emergency Department waiting for a bed to be freed-up inside, many had spent the night and one elderly man had spent 20 hours on a trolley with no sign of a bed becoming available.

Dr Martin Connor, newly appointed head of the new ‘Special Delivery Unit’, a new unit charged with reducing waiting lists in the country’s hospitals, visited UHG hours after the Minister left – it is his first ‘port of call’ since being appointed in June. Chairperson of HSE West regional forum, Cllr Pádraig Conneely (FG) said the visits show the Government and Minister has made UHG a priority.

Minister Reilly, in an interview with the Galway City Tribune following his spontaneous visit, said he is determined to aggressively bring about change at the city hospital.

“When I arrived there were 23 people on trolleys waiting for a bed and admission, I chatted and apologised to one man who was on a trolley for 20 hours, and another man who was there for 12 hours. That’s not good enough . . . patients are extraordinarily tolerant and good humoured, but I’m not going to preside over this sort of situation . . . I’m absolutely determined and committed that this is going to change,” he said.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.