Saolta management say they do not know how many patients at Mayo University Hospital have died with Covid 19 since the start of the pandemic.

As of Monday of this week, 182 people in county Mayo have died with the virus since March of last year. However, at yesterday’s virtual HSE West Forum meeting, the CEO of the Saolta group Tony Canavan insisted that they cannot say how many of these people died at Mayo university Hospital.

He admitted that some patients who had died with the virus, had tested negative for Covid 19 on admission to Mayo University Hospital and had subsequently tested positive for it. But he could not provide any figures on the number of such cases.

Mr Canavan was responding to questions submitted in writing to the Forum by Castlebar Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne.

Cllr Kilcoyne had asked how many patients at Mayo University Hospital had died with Covid 19? How many had contracted the virus while a patient in the hospital, and if there were better facilities at the hospital would the death rate of patients have been lower?

He failed to secure any direct answers to these questions and he says he is baffled and frustrated with the HSE West management’s responses. He believes the people of the county deserve direct answers to these questions and has called on Mayo TDs to seek the responses that have been denied to him as an elected councillor.

Cllr Kilcoyne has been speaking to Midwest News Editor Teresa O’Malley ....