Madam, - I refer to your Seanad report of April 15th, "Trolleys no bed of nails - Moylan". This quotes Seanad Government Whip Pat Moylan (Fianna Fáil) as saying he had seen trolleys during visits to hospitals and that "the way people speak to me, you'd think they were a bed of nails".
I have already challenged Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney to visit Mayo General Hospital, and I would like now to invite Senator Moylan to join her on that visit.
I only wish both these Government representatives could have witnessed, as I did yesterday, the sight of an ill and anxious 88-year-old man with tears in his eyes who was spending his birthday on a trolley, while a young man, who was on his third day on a trolley, had lost his bag of possessions, so often had his trolley been moved to accommodate 14 other ones.
Only the week before, 27 trolleys had occupied the same A&E unit, one occupied by a 100-year-old woman, all competing for space with the 90-plus people who are assessed in this busy department every day. In addition, the Mayo ambulance service was paralysed that morning: five ambulances were parked outside the doors of the A&E, unable to discharge their cargoes of sick people, because there was no space inside. One person had to wait outside in the ambulance for more than three hours.
People deserve better. I suggest that Senator Moylan would be better employed in pressing for the 3,000 hospital beds taken out of the system to be replaced, rather than trying to defend the indefensible. - Yours, etc.,
Dr JERRY COWLEY TD, Mulranny, Co Mayo.
Madam, - Your Editorial of April 11th stated that with the level of funding provided to it this year the Health Service Executive will only be able to maintain services at last year's level. I wish to point out that, in addition to this level of service, the HSE is also committed to service developments (costing more than €200 million) in A&E, services for persons with a disability, services in mental health, cancer services and renal services.
I would also like to correct an inaccuracy in the Editorial. The HSE has in fact already communicated financial budgets and the performance monitoring arrangements to all areas of the HSE delivering services in 2005. - Yours, etc.,
DIARMUID COLLINS, National Finance Director, Health Service Executive, Naas, Co Kildare.
Madam, - Last week my 81-year-old grandmother had a stroke and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. When she got there, there was no bed available for her so she had to spend the night sitting in a chair in the middle of the Accident & Emergency room. She didn't even get a trolley.
My grandmother was very frightened and upset at all that she could see going on around her. Can you just imagine an 81-year old woman, who just had a stroke, sitting with a drip attached on a chair in the middle of a busy emergency room, with no privacy at all? It's an absolute disgrace.
I demand that Bertie Ahern and the health board do something about this. It's not just my grandmother's case, it is happening all the time to many, many people, just as we read.
The Government said some time ago that it was going to do something about this crisis situation. But did it? I'm sorry to say it, but NO, there's no change. So Bertie, if you're reading this, shame on you! - Yours, etc.,
SHAUNA BOLGER (age 13), Park Drive Green, Castleknock, Dublin 15.
Madam, - "Plan ahead, bring your own bed" reads a placard in a demonstration against hospital overcrowding (front page photograph, April 13th). Yet we are allegedly living in one of the most successful economies in Europe.
Daily we hear heart-rending cases of patients being refused access to hospitals or enduring long waits on trolleys. Economists, please, how does this add up? -Yours, etc.,
HILARY CARR, Dale Road, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.