A mum of two has hit out at the HSE after being forced into 330km bus trips each week to see her sick son in hospital.
Beccy McGrath, 26, from Clonmel in Tipperary, has expressed her frustration at the delay in transferring her five month old son, Alex, from Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin since birth, back to a hospital in Clonmel.
Doctors told her he was fit to be discharged on March 25.
Beccy stays in the Ronald McDonald house at Crumlin six days a week, while her other child, seven year old Ajay, remains in Clonmel being cared for by her [Beccy’s] dad Denis.
Alex’s father Paul Ryan died tragically after a fall, ten weeks before his son was born.
The heartbroken mum revealed how Ajay is now blaming his younger brother for the family being split up.
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Beccy said: “It’s devastating, Ajay has started saying that it’s all Alex fault, and I am trying to be the best mum I can to both of them, it’s cost me hundreds of euro in bus fares so far and I haven’t a clue when it’s going to end.
“It’s not as if we’re looking for the hospital to take Alex permanently as myself and dad can look after him during the day, we only need a bed for him at night time.
“I spoke to someone in Clonmel and she told me there was a staffing problem, I find that hard to believe, I mean Crumlin trained twenty four staff in Clonmel so how can they be short staffed? It defies belief that they could all be on holidays or ill at the same time.
“We are waiting at the moment for a home care package to be approved where we can look after Alex in the daytime and have a nurse in at night to take care of him, but in the meantime we want him back in Clonmel.
“I go home every Wednesday evening and back to Dublin on the Thursday, the HSE have left me in a situation where I have to choose which son to spend time with and that can’t be right.
“Crumlin has been brilliant, they have supplied every medical report required by Clonmel, sent people down to do the training and yet Clonmel are refusing to help.
“It’s annoying, frustrating and aggravating, but I have no choice except to get on with it, I’m Alex’s only surviving parent, I have to be there for him."
A spokesperson for South Tipperary General Hospital said: ‘“We do not comment on individual cases but can confirm we are aware of this case and are engaging with the relevant bodies.”
