BY CIARAN TIERNEY

The daughter of an 81-year old woman who spent 30 hours lying on a trolley at University Hospital Galway (UHG) last week has compared the “chaotic” conditions in the Emergency Department (ED) to a warzone.

On a night when there were 27 people on trolleys at UHG, Mrs Carmel Conway had to lie in a corridor overnight as she was forced to waited until Thursday morning for a bed after being admitted by ambulance at lunch-time on Wednesday.

“What I saw was absolutely shocking. It was chaotic, with no order whatsoever to anything,” her daughter, Sheelagh Conway, from Tynagh, told The Sentinel yesterday.

“It was like a warzone, with people lying on trolleys and on floors, blood on the floor and bandages. The worst part was the faces of the people. People were ‘zombied’ out after waiting for hours, because of the disaster in front of them. The whole thing was out of control. It was mayhem.

“I saw people coming in, shouting, and there seemed to be nobody there to deal with them. I spent the whole night with my mother and there wasn’t even a chair in the cubicle for me. I had to get a magazine to lie on. Anyone who goes into that hospital needs to have someone with them, to look out for them.”

She said that one woman walked out of the ED after waiting five hours for treatment and it was clear that nurses were under “horrendous stress” throughout the night. Her mother was finally admitted to St Anne’s Ward after seeing a consultant at 8.30 the following morning.

Ms Conway said she contacted the constituency office of the Minister for Health, James Reilly, by telephone on Thursday and was horrified when a member of his staff hung up on her.

“The constituency office made enquiries to Galway to seek reassurance that all patients in the Emergency Department are being treated as quickly and effectively as possible,” said a spokesman for the Minister for Health, when questioned by the Irish Independent – the first newspaper contacted by Ms Conway – late last week.

A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive (West) declined to comment on an individual case at the ED but confirmed that UHG was at “full hospital protocol” – effectively full to capacity – last Wednesday night.