Mayo TD shares concerns online after late night visit to Mayo emergency department

"Patients on trolleys and chairs for 24+ hours. No dignity, no privacy — corridors turned into wards. Staff doing their best in impossible conditions."

Mayo Aontú TD Paul Lawless visited to Mayo University Hospital late last night after receiving a phone call from a constituent who said they had been waiting in excess of 24 hours in the emergency department.

Speaking today, Deputy Lawless said: "When I received the phone call from my constituent, I decided that I wanted to go down to the hospital to see first-hand the situation that is unfolding.

"In many cases patients are waiting over 24 hours to be admitted. They're waiting in horrendous circumstances - on trolleys, in chairs, in a space that is cramped and limited with some being treated in trolleys in corridors, nooks, and crannies where trolleys can barely pass each other."

Deputy Lawless continued: "Over the previous 48 hours about 300 people had presented to the emergency department which shows the level of pressure the hospital is under.

"The Safe Staffing Threshold is not being reached in MUH on a regular basis.

"The staff in the hospital are working incredibly hard but we simply don't have enough of them.

"We have a problem too in terms of physical space and capacity in the hospital.

"Patient numbers in the emergency department are rising each year - the HSE confirmed to me that more patients were seen in the emergency department last year than ever before".

"In two years alone, the government spent €80 million in Mayo on migrant accommodation.

"Some €2 million of taxpayers’ money is going to be spent on a meeting room in Mayo County Council which will only be used about once a month.

"Yet we don't have adequate investment in Mayo's most important and vital piece of infrastructure - our hospital.

"I will be raising this when the Dáil resumes - we need safe staffing levels and additional capacity."