St Mary's Hospital, Phoenix Park... Pretty shocked at the state of it...

Solair

A relative of mine was recently transferred from the Mater Hospital to St Mary's as a "complicated discharge". She's suffering from cancer and recovering from pretty serious surgery which has left her in need of rehab.

She's a very active, 100% with-it lady and she was getting on fine in the mater in a mixed, friendly cancer ward.

I called over to her at St Mary's and I am absolutely horrified at the state of the place. It's literally falling apart and it's filthy in many areas. You walk in via what is laughingly called a reception area. It had a broken door, no staff member or security, ugly brown carpet and dark paint/flaking off the walls. It looks like some kind of horrible old industrial school or something.

There was even a light fitting with literally hundreds of dead blue bottles inside it.

In her ward the beds are so close that the nurses can't even walk between them!!

My relative is at risk of infection because of her treatment reducing her immune response slightly, so this seems a little crazy.

It's also not very dignified or comfortable to be *that* close to the next patient.

It's an absolutely depressing environment and I'm horrified that such places still exist and that the HSE can standover having staff and patients in such an absolute kip.

The ward she is in has been renovated a bit, i.e. it looks re-painted and a little brighter. However, it is still grossly over packed with patients.

The staff seem friendly, but the facility is just disgraceful and depressing. It must be hugely demoralising for staff and and even more so for patients.

My relative desperately wants to get out of this place and get home a.s.a.p.

In fact, I think she would get back to some level of health and well being by going home a.s.a.p. even though she has pretty serious cancer.

I'm just wondering had anyone else has had any dealings with this place or if our experience of I is representative of the entire facility?

Overseas relatives called in and actually wondered how such facilities could possibly exist in a 1st world country. It's THAT bad!

It makes my blood boil when I look at a vanity project just a short distance away, Farmleigh. The state spent €29.2 million in 1999 purchasing it from its original owners and another €23 million refurbishing it. Meanwhile, some of the most vulnerable people in the area are left in a decaying 19th century heap down the road.

You'd really have to wonder!

€52.2 million would have done quite a lot for it!

You can measure a civilisation's development by how it treats its most vulnerable. Not by how fancy its Governmental follies are.

Vorsprung

Did a few sessions out there as a student. Can think of few places I'd like to work in less, and as for my relatives staying there, I'd be on the phone trying to sort something else out for them. I think the building is an old British Army hospital - placement long overdue.

Solair

I'm still rather taken aback by the place. She had very good treatment in the Mater, from a technical/medical perspective and while the wards in that hospital aren't exactly new, they were much more pleasant and positive feeling.

I really fear that if she's in there for any length of time she will just become seriously depressed.

Do you have any ideas who we should approach to get her moved?

The Mater seems to have gotten her quite a comprehensive home-care package. So, hopefully she can get back to her own house very soon, but she definitely needs rehab.

Are there any private rehab facilities that we could just pay for ? Or, are there any public services that she could use on a day-patient basis for physio etc?

Also, do you know who actually runs that hospital? Is it run directly by the HSE or, is it a voluntary hospital of some sort?

Dr Galen

unfortunatley Marys in the Park has suffered from a long period of little investment. While not very helpful right now to you, there is a major programme of refurb going on.

If you take a look out the back there are several completely new units that have built. I've been in them and they are state of the art, and very nice. AFAIK the plan is to gradually move everyone from the main building to these units and refurb the existing structures, bit by bit.

WHile the physical building is pretty crap and outdated, I will say that most of the staff there in my experience anyway, are very good, and know their stuff. So at least its not all bad.

Jip

A friend recently worked there for a day, only about 2 weeks ago, and she said she'd never go back to work in it ever again, a truly awful place she reckons.

JuliusCaesar

Solair wrote: »

I called over to her at St Mary's and I am absolutely horrified at the state of the place. It's literally falling apart and it's filthy in many areas. You walk in via what is laughingly called a reception area. It had a broken door, no staff member or security, ugly brown carpet and dark paint/flaking off the walls. It looks like some kind of horrible old industrial school or something.

..............
You can measure a civilisation's development by how it treats its most vulnerable. Not by how fancy its Governmental follies are.

Please please please write or email Mary Harney! Email: Minister's_Office@health.irlgov.ie Letting off steam here doesn't achieve a lot. (Neither does writing to Mary, but we can only hope...)