Health Minister denies Mayo University Hospital understaffed despite patient waiting 13 hours in ambulance
In August, one man waited for over 13 hours in an ambulance outside Mayo University Hospital (MUH) before being admitted.
Throughout the month, MUH was repeatedly at capacity. Three weeks ago, management warned of exceptionally long Emergency Department (ED) waiting times as patient presentations peaked at 165 in a single day.
Elective surgeries were subsequently postponed due to pressures on site and lack of beds in the ED, with reports of only five nurses rostered on certain days to manage the entire department.
In response to reports of severe pressure in the ED, Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill made an unscheduled visit to MUH in August.
Last week, Mayo TD Paul Lawless raised the hospital's problems with the Minister in the Dáil, saying the issue was understaffing.
He urged her to implement a Safe Staffing Framework at MUH, which could provide 30 additional nurses.
Minister Carroll MacNeill, however, rejected the claim of understaffing. She noted that MUH has had a 30pc increase in staff over five years.
She said the problem is that MUH is imbalanced, not understaffed.
"In relation to staffing, MUH has had a 30pc increase over the last five years. When I saw some of these figures, I did a sample of nine model-three hospitals, and Mayo Hospital has the second-highest rate of staffing,
"Mayo Hospital is not understaffed; what Mayo Hospital is, is imbalanced," she said.
Model three hospitals provide elective and general surgeries, and they admit undifferentiated medical and surgical patients. There are 17 across Ireland.
During her visit to MUH, Minister Carroll MacNeill said there were 47 patients in the ED at that time. Of those, 20 had been admitted for beds, but no discharges were being carried out.
The Minister pointed to weekend discharge practices, saying there is not sufficient work being done to discharge patients over the weekend.
She told the Dáil that on one weekend, 16 patients were discharged on Saturday, just one on Sunday, but then 47 were discharged the following Monday.
"There's not a single person in this room that can explain that, except that there is an imbalance in staffing," she said.
During her visit, she found the ED "absolutely overwhelmed," and stated there is a serious patient safety issue, with 47 patients in the department, while "the rest of the hospital was completely empty, there were practically no diagnostics going on, there weren't even people in the diagnostics area."
Calling it a "whole hospital responsibility," she announced plans to write to Mayo TDs and councillors to outline the issues surrounding staffing and patient flow.
The Minister stated that the hospital is not understaffed overall; however, the ED is experiencing shortages due to unbalanced staffing across other areas, suggesting a problem with hospital management.
"Let's stick to the facts here," she added. "It is not understaffed; it needs to be balanced."
In response to the exchange in the Dáil, Deputy Lawless has demanded an immediate review of management failings at MUH.
Our nurses and doctors cannot keep shouldering the consequences of mismanagement
He welcomed the Minister's openness in working towards a resolution, and acknowledged the time she had taken to look into the ongoing issues at MUH, but added, "Let us be frank - it should never have taken this long,
"While reports were shuffled from desk to desk, patients suffered, frontline staff soldiered on, and local management refused to face the truth. That neglect is indefensible."
Deputy Lawless is calling for a review that must hold the management accountable.
"Mayo needs management that will take responsibility for these failures. If they will not, they must be shown the door. Our nurses and doctors cannot keep shouldering the consequences of mismanagement."
He added: "The time for excuses has passed. This review must deliver immediate reform - seven-day rostering, the Safe Staffing Framework, and above all, accountability."
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.