Health service 'let my mother down in her final days'
A woman whose mother died at Naas General Hospital last year has said she was badly let down by the health system in her final days.
Noreen Burns was transferred to Naas from Tallaght Hospital last summer because there was no Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed available for her in Tallaght.
Her daughter Patricia said the situation in Naas was "chaotic", but that Noreen got a place in the ICU.
She was then moved to a ward, but Patricia claims a doctor admitted Noreen would have stayed put if an ICU bed were available at the time.
Patricia said the family would never know what difference overcrowding made to her mother's situation, but that her treatment was not good enough.
"She was let down, very badly," she said. "This isn't good enough really for somebody who toes the line and does everything for their children - rearing six children in the 70s and 80s wasn't an easy task.
"My father was self-employed. There wasn't a lot of money. They paid their VHI because they believed it was the right thing to do. It didn’t make any difference in the end…..So, I think 'betrayal' isn’t too strong a word."
