This article is from page 3 of the 2006-02-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE Clare People has learned that a dying West Clare woman spent some of her last hours on a borrowed bed in the male medical ward at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Ennis.
The distraught woman’s family said the 90-year-old broke her hip early on Wednesday, January 18, and was taken from her home to the Ennis hospital by ambulance.
On arrival, they were told that there was no beds available in Limerick for the woman.
Her son-in-law, hospital activist, Peadar McNamara, said he was told that there were 36 people waiting for a bed at the Mid Western Regional hospital Limerick.
His mother-in-law was then put on a bed borrowed from St Joseph’s Elderly Care hospital. This bed was placed under the sink in the male medical ward, according to Mr McNamara, the chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee.
On Thursday morning at 8 0’clock, she was removed to the Regional hospital in Limerick, where 12 hours later a bed was found. She died in the early hours of Friday morning.
“While I am outraged on a personal level, I am equally outraged as a citizen of this state. How many more Clare people have gone through this and continue to go through it?,” asked Mr McNamara.
He praised the work of the medical and nursing staff who cared for his late mother-in-law. He said the problems were at a more senior level and with provisions.
Meanwhile, the hospital committee chairman claimed that the unavailability of a cat scan in the hospital made the future of 24 hour emergency services there more tentative.
Mr McNamara said he was aware of a private company willing to provide and man the scan, on site in the hospital, at a cost of €250,000 per annum. This would ensure that the 820 Clare patients going to Limerick for a scan could be treated in Ennis.