Health Minister says Mayo University Hospital to become ‘standard-bearer’ for hospitals across region
Mayo University Hospital (MUH) is positioned to become the "standard-bearer" for hospital care in the west and northwest according to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
During her visit to Mayo on Monday, the Minister confirmed that Phase Two of the Safe Staffing Framework has been fully implemented in the emergency department (ED) with 18.5 new whole-time equivalent (WTE) positions sanctioned.
Speaking in Castlebar, Minister Carroll MacNeil acknowledged that the slow rollout of the framework had been "unique to Mayo", and said that the WTE figure emerged following a visit from the Chief Nursing Officer to MUH.
"The Chief Nursing Officer was there a number of weeks ago and she identified a need for 18.5 WTE, three of whom are to be healthcare professionals," the Minister said.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has previously stated that the ED at MUH needs a total of 28.5 WTE nurses in order to meet the Safe Staffing Framework.
The union has repeatedly warned of unsafe conditions, citing incomplete rosters, chronic understaffing and persistently high trolley numbers.
In recent months, MUH has issued notices warning the public that bed shortages and pressure on the ED could lead to significant delays, with elective surgeries postponed and patients advised to attend their GP or injury units where possible.
The INMO issued notice of industrial action in September and criticised the HSE for failing to implements the Safe Staffing Framework, they felt that the level of risk to their patients had become unacceptable.
A strike had been scheduled for Monday, November 3, but was postponed to allow members to vote on a proposal from the HSE and the Workplace Relations Commission.
The Minister, however, insists the hospital is not understaffed, arguing that MUH has one of the highest nursing complements among Ireland’s 17 model three hospitals.
"I have great respect for the INMO as advocates, but it is also the case that MUH already has a higher complement of nursing staff than is the case in many other model three hospitals," she said and added that the challenges at MUH are not purely about numbers, but about redeployment and improving processes.
Minister Carroll MacNeill stated that nursing numbers had significantly increased over the last five years, but accepted that they "could have been deployed in better ways at different stages."
Areas flagged for improvement included triage, shift management and ambulance handover, which the Minister said would ease pressure on staff and improve patient safety.
"All of these different things take time and have to be done in the best way possible, and consistently across all of our hospitals to make sure we are getting the very best out of every single person that's working there," she said.
"We have to stop thinking that things can only be done if you have a new person to do it, that's just not so,
"The whole nursing complement is available to MUH…and that whole nursing complement has to be used in ways that meet the needs of the hospital [and] meet the needs of the people."
For the first three quarters of the year, MUH had been operating above the unsafe threshold for more than 80pc of the time, placing it in the ‘red’ zone.
The Minister said the numbers are now moving in the right direction, with nine out of 31 days in October classed as red compared to 24 out of 30 in September.
Whilst acknowledging that improvements will not be linear, Minister Carroll MacNeill stated that she expects MUH to match the performance levels seen in other comparable hospitals.
"We see it in Connolly hospital, there's no one on a trolley, maybe one or two. It's the same in Portlaoise, it's the same in Tullamore. These are all model three hospitals with the same pressures, same age pressures, the same demographic pressures, the same socioeconomic pressures as MUH,
"So why should the people of Mayo have a different experience than the people of Blanchardstown or Tullamore? I don't believe they should. The people of Mayo should have the same standard of care, and that's what I want to achieve for them."
"I can see a clear trajectory of travel that's going in the right direction, and I expect to see [MUH] now as the absolute standard-bearer for the west [and] northwest,” she said.
Some local representatives maintain that staff shortages are at the heart of the issue at MUH. Earlier this month, Cllr Harry Barrett reported that a lack of available nurses had led to the temporary closure of the Ambulatory Emergency Department.
“This situation completely contradicts what the Minister for Health has been claiming, that MUH is not short of staff,” he said at the time.
“People in Mayo deserve a hospital that’s properly staffed and able to care for patients safely. Instead, we’re seeing services cut back, staff burned out, and patients left waiting. That’s not good enough.”
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.