Cllr Gerry Mc Monagle has said he is disappointed with the response he received today at the Regional Health Forum meeting in Galway regarding funding to open up the closed Short Stay Ward.
The Sinn Fein councillor called on SAOLTA to find the necessary resources to enable the 20 bed Short Stay Ward at the hospital to be open on a more permanent basis.
“The numbers of people laying on trollies awaiting beds continues to rise with 33 on trollies today is just not good enough and must be addressed.
“Despite this ongoing emergency the Hospital has been forced to seek funding under the Critical Unmet Need and Winter Surge Initiatives for funding to re-open the beds at the Short Stay Ward which would increase the in-patient bed capacity at the hospital.
“This is despite that overcrowding is now a daily occurrence and not solely during the winter months.
“The other concern I would have is that there is a limited amount of money available through this scheme and every other hospital in the SAOLTA group are experiencing the same problems and have also made applications under this winter initiative scheme. Our health service staff are at breaking point, patients are being put at risk.
“Our Government must make more money available for our creaking Health Service. Minister Harris when he became the Health Minister promised us all if given the time he would turn around the problems in our Health Service unfortunately like his predecessors which includes the Taoiseach who has failed miserably.”
