The Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar has been taken off-call due to chronic overcrowding in the hospital’s Accident & Emergency Department.
Staff at the hospital were told of the development this afternoon, after senior clinicians asked the HSE to make the move citing concerns over patient safety.
This morning 23 people were on trolleys in the A&E, staff say the situation is unprecedented and is not due to an increase in demand for services.
41 emergency beds at the hospital have been taken out of the system in recent months and 35 nursing staff members who have left have not been replaced.
The Health Service Executive says that the A&E remains open for people who want to arrive there themselves, however, the ambulance service has been instructed to bring patients to other hospitals in the area.
It is understood that senior clinicians at the Hospital in Mullingar have for some weeks expressed concern about the overcrowding situation at the hospital.
Lorraine Monaghan, INO Industrial Relations Officer, said that 'The A&E Department in Mullingar cannot cope with this level of overcrowding, it is unsafe and unmanageable.
‘This situation will inevitably worsen as we enter into the depths of winter unless management take immediate action and reopen the recently closed beds in the Hospital.’
