Concerns are being expressed after a large volume of people attended the Paediatric Unit at Mullingar regional hospital over the weekend.
Several people got in contact with Shannonside FM this week to report how overcrowded the ED Department at the hospital was over the weekend.
Enfield native Joe Gavin brought his daughter to the ED on Sunday night at around 9pm but was shocked by the significant volume for people presented as well as the delays for people seeking treatment.
He has been speaking to Kevin McGillicuddy about his experience, and is calling for extra resources to be put in place at Mullingar :
The following is a statement from MRH
Our Emergency Department (ED) has sustained extremely high demand over the last number of weeks including our Paediatric ED Service. This is due to both non-covid and covid positive patients presenting to the hospital.
To date, Regional Hospital Mullingar have been able to maintain services. This is testament to the commitment of our staff in the hospital, who have been working under the most severe pressures.
Staff and management would again ask the public to consider their care options before presenting at the Hospital’s Emergency Department. Please speak to your GP, Pharmacist or Doctor on Call before coming to the hospital. Patients who do come to ED and are not triaged as seriously ill, may need to wait for a long period to be seen. Adult and Paediatric patients who require urgent care will be prioritised.
Unfortunately, due to the high levels of Covid-19 in the community we have been forced to curtail patient visiting on the general wards as a precautionary measure in order to protect the safety of patients and staff to help reduce the spread of infection by curtail general ward patient visiting, with exemptions by arrangement with the Ward, since the 12th October 2021 and hospital management would like to thank members of the public for their co-operation and understanding with these arrangements.
However, the Hospital has been able to return Maternity visiting arrangements, similar to what had been in place pre-Covid.
On behalf of the staff working at Regional Hospital Mullingar I would like to thank the public, our GPs and Community Services for their support at this time.”
