A woman who was attending Dublin’s Mater hospital has revealed that she had seen what appeared to be a group of drug addicts dealing drugs as they spent a night in the Mater Hospital’s A&E department.
The woman has said that group of addicts were given blankets to sleep on benches in the accident and emergency department but began “shouting and roaring”.
Colette Power told RTE radio she thought that “The department was an absolute disgrace. It was like a junkie hotel,” Ms Power stated that she was with her daughter in the Mater A&E last Friday from 6.45pm to 5am as her daughter was awaiting treatment.
Ms Power claimed: “As the night went on there were more and more junkies coming in,” she said.
“Very obviously they were dealing drugs as after a while they were going out and coming back in.
“Every one of them got a blanket to go asleep on the benches.
“They all fell asleep, had their night’s sleep and got up then and started roaring and shouting again.
Ms Power went onto say “And I just thought, ‘What do the tourists think? That Dublin is the safest place?’ I don’t think so. Everybody knows it’s not.” Ms Power has said she had sympathy for heroin addicts but felt it was a disgraceful situation at the hospital. Ms Power questioned whether the addicts were given blankets to keep them quiet by letting them sleep.”But it’s just awful if you have a patient coming into the hospital who may be very anxious, very nervous and in an awful state,” she said.
“They don’t want to hear roaring and shouting from people who sometimes are a bit threatening towards other people in the condition they may be in.”
Ms Power claimed that the situation was that bad she wondered what would tourists in A&E that night must have thought saying it was “crazy”. Ms Power also added that “We’re not helping our addicts, God love them, with the life that they have,”.
A spokesperson for the Mater hospital refused to comment on Ms Power’s claims.