An Irish mother has shared her frustration after her son’s long-awaited appointment in Crumlin Children's Hospital was cancelled due to bed shortages.
Michael O’Sullivan suffers from gastroenterological issues following a perforated bowel back in 2019.
His mother, Jean, has now spoken about her devastation after his vital tests in the hospital were cancelled, despite waiting months for an appointment.
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Jean O’Sullivan said she wants to know why the hospital doesn’t have “proper planning in place at this time of year” to assist doctors and nurses trying to look after children like Michael amid the challenging winter months.
“I have no bad feeling toward the wonderful staff or consultants or anything like that. It's all down to management, I feel,” she said.
The O’Sullivans live in Kerry, and due to the fact that there are no services in the area, they have to travel up to Dublin for each appointment.
They had been waiting for these tests since April of this year and had planned to travel up to the capital with the Bumbleance service, provided by the Children’s National Ambulance Service of Ireland, due to Michael’s condition making it difficult to travel by car.
Aside from the appointment being cancelled, Jean said the lack of services in the south of the country is a huge issue that she would want to make aware to the Health Minister. She told Newstalk Breakfast this morning: “It’s not just about the appointment being cancelled.
“It’s about the fact that services are being taken out of local hospitals. We don’t have a paediatric hospital in Kerry. We don’t have a gastroenterological team in Kerry.
“Therefore, we have to travel and, at the end of the day, if we’re all going to the same place for gastroenterology treatments, how can there be beds for everybody?”
Even during Michael’s first issues with his bowel back in 2019, Jean said they waited nine days for a bed in the same hospital.
“I saw it in 2019 when Michael became so ill. Everyday we were told, ‘Tomorrow, you’re going. The bed will be there tomorrow.’
“Tomorrow, unfortunately, never came. I’m sure there are probably other families that are in that position now,” she said.
Jean finished up the interview with Newstalk Breakfast by saying that Michael is in a much better position now that he had been in 2019.
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