Facilities for parents who wish to stay with children in Temple Street Hospital in Dublin were condemned as disgraceful yesterday by a mother who has had to sleep on the bare floor at her child's bedside.
"It was like... the Third World to see all these mums on the floor. It's disgraceful. And I'm sure if one of the Minister's wives had a child they wouldn't have to sleep on the floor," she told RTÉ's Liveline.
Another parent said he was ordered by a matron to sit on a plastic chair when trying to sleep under his child's bed. He sat on it for 11 nights. "I'd like to say to Bertie Ahern and all those guys who order new Government jets, they should take a walk down to Temple Street to see the archaic conditions that still exist there. It's absolutely appalling," he said.
The hospital's chief executive, Mr Paul Cunniffe, said last evening he would be looking at finding a solution to the problem. "I'm certainly not happy with the idea that people have to sleep on the floor. We will look at that," he said.
Space was a problem in the hospital which would not be fully addressed until Temple Street moved to new facilities at the Mater Hospital site in 2009, he said. However, in the interim, the hospital would look at providing parents who want to sleep with their children with loungers or fold-up mattresses, he added. "The hospital is not standing still while it waits to move," he stressed.
Mr Cunniffe confirmed it was hospital policy to encourage parents to stay with children. There are sleeping quarters for some parents but these are separate to the wards and are usually given over to parents from outside Dublin and those whose children are hospitalised for prolonged periods.