Petition launched to end trolley crisis at Mayo University Hospital

Members of the public have been invited to sign a petition to end the trolley crisis at Mayo University Hospital (MUH).

The petition has been set up via the social media platform, 'change.org,' by Harry Barrett, a former elected member of Castlebar Town Council.

He explained: "I am very concerned about the trolley crisis in Mayo General Hospital.

"Every day, between 20 and 30 sick and vulnerable patients lie on trolleys in our local hospital, awaiting treatment for hours at a time, sometimes days, and this can have a devastating effect on a patient's outcome, especially an elderly patient.

"Despite many promises, and despite the best efforts and professionalism of staff, the problem persists. We now know that delays in treatment like this causes early deaths.

"The HSE recently said that 1,300 people died as a result of health delays from the beginning of October to the end of February.

"This means we have lost about nine people here in Mayo in the same period.

"The HSE also say that if a person has to wait longer than six hours for treatment one in 82 patients will be dead within a month. This cannot go on.

"Enough is Enough.

"So I asked you to please join me by signing the petition calling on our government TDs in this county to act.

"We call on them to pressurise the HSE to properly resource primary care in County Mayo, by providing more GP services out-of-hours and at the weekends.

"We call on them also to demand more nurses and consultant doctors for MUH and finally we call on them to provide the necessary step-down beds in our district hospitals, to free up bed space in the hospital

"We have to act. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I I sincerely hope that you go the next step, by signing the petition and sharing it."

The petition can be accessed here.