Sinn Féin Deputy Leader and Dublin Central TD Mary Lou McDonald (below) published a comprehensive and substantive document on Dublin’s Mater Hospital, which in June was the third most overcrowded hospital in Ireland, behind University Hospital Limerick and University Hospital Galway, according to figures released by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization.
The Mater “provides not just a local service but also provides many specific specialties such as in the area of transplants,” she said at a press conference. “It is in all of our interests that the hospital works and works well.”
McDonald also noted that Sinn Féin’s review demonstrated that the government is critically underfunding health, which “will have consequences for patients in cancellations of elective surgery, longer waiting times and less resources available to treat them,” she said. Five-hundred-and-thirty-two people were also left on trolleys in the hospital in June.
“These figures represent further evidence that our health service, through inadequate bed and staffing levels, simply cannot cope with the demands being placed upon it,” I.N.M.O. general secretary Liam Doran said.
“The legitimate attempts to reduce waiting lists has only exacerbated the levels of overcrowding, with the indignity and loss of privacy that result, now taking place in this peak summer period in emergency departments and wards across the country.” ♦
Record Overcrowding in Irish Hospitals
This article reminds me of the 2 weeks I was dialyzed in Tralee Hospital in the fall of 1997. I was pleasantly surprised by the EXCELLENT care I received from the highly professional and very dedicated nurses. Having previously received dialysis in 6 different hospitals in New York and New England, I noticed that the dialysis machines in Tralee were newer and more efficient. One and a half years later, I received a new kidney from a very lady who is a native of Moyvane, Kerry. That was almost 19 years ago, and since then I have been under the care of the nephrologist at the Veterans Hospital in Albany, and all is well. But I’m am exceedingly grateful to the altruistic lady from Moyvane, also to the dialysis nurses at Tralee Hospital.