A West Clare woman claims she “feared for her life” during her recent stay at the region’s main hospital due to what she’s described as undignified conditions in the emergency department.
It comes as the INMO has recorded over 300 patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick within the first three days of this week.
27-year-old Mary Taylor from Kilkee was holidaying in Spain last week, when she began to suffer unbearable back pain, and after attending an urgent care centre was diagnosed with kidney stones.
She flew home with the intention of undergoing a CT Scan, but soon developed additional symptoms that led to her being rushed by ambulance to the Emergency Department at UHL.
It would later emerge she was in the early stages of sepsis.
Mary first received treatment in the resus area of the ED before being removed to a hospital corridor, where she claims she was left screaming in pain, without a doctor present to prescribe painkillers for a significant period of time.
She eventually self-discharged against medical advice on Sunday after being informed she could face delays of up to five days for surgery at UHL, and instead underwent the procedure athe Galway clinic on Monday morning.
Mary claims the conditions she and other patients endured during her stay at UHL were “horrific”.
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In a statement to Clare FM, the UL Hospital Group says it regrets the long wait times for a bed, and challenges around privacy and dignity currently being experienced by patients in the ED.
It’s also assuring patients and their loved ones that health and social care teams across the region are working hard within existing resources, and at capacity, to reduce these wait times.
It comes as the Department of Health has confirmed the independent investigation by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke into death of Shannon Teenager Aoife Johnston at University Hospital Limerick will be completed by the end of May.
The sixteen-year-old passed away in December of 2022 from bacterial meningitis after spending twelve hours on a trolley in the Emergency Department
Scariff Independent TD Michael McNamara says, it’s important the report is robust and can withstand any challenge to effect change at the facility.
