Protest at Mayo hospital as part of national day of action against overcrowding
A NATIONAL Hospitals Campaign Day of Action protest will take place outside Mayo University Hospital on Saturday, January 21, Mayo Aontú representative Paul Lawless has confirmed.
The protest will be staged at 1 p.m. as part of the national campaign against overcrowding in Irish hospitals.
Said Mr. Lawless: “People are furious over the continuing damage that is being done to our health service.
“Government are blaming people for getting sick. This is incredibly cynical.
“The crisis has been caused by the lack of capacity - 120,000 people on trolleys last year, 931 people on trolleys on one day at the start of the year. In the last week, according to the HSE, 1,800 patients waited over 24 hours in emergency departments.
“The crisis in A&Es is leading to excess deaths and significantly damaged health of people right around the country. It's estimated to be in the region of 360 deaths a year.
He continued: “It's not happening by accident. It is a direct result of years of cuts to staff, hospital beds and A&Es at a time there has been significant population increase. The health service is designed for a population of 3.5 million people, not 5.5 million people that we have now.
“We don’t have the hospital beds, the ICU beds or the staff for the population. Major cuts were implemented after the banking crash. We have 6,000 less hospital beds than in 2008, 200 too few ICU beds, and 30% too few GPs. There are 700 missing consultants in the health system. In 15 years the government closed eight A&Es.”
In November, 586 people had to wait on trolleys at Mayo University Hospital. The figures across the region are equally shocking, he said, with 2,318 patients accommodated on trolleys across the region (Galway University Hospital, Portiuncula University Hospital, Sligo University Hospital and Mayo University Hospital) for the same period.
Said Mr. Lawless: “This is no longer tolerable.
“We are calling for a complete review of the HSE policy of reducing A&E capacity in our hospitals. We are calling for smaller hospitals to be resourced to provide much needed capacity.
“We are demanding reform of the HSE from the top down. We seek funding to be focused at front line services and not layers of management. We are calling on fair pay, terms and working conditions to be provided to staff now.
“We want adequate provisions of GPs for primary care and step down and home care facilities to help patients leave hospital when treatment is complete.
“We urge the people of Mayo to join us in big numbers outside Mayo University Hospital on January 21.”