Management at University Hospital Galway have apologised to cancer patients who have experienced delays in their treatment.
In a statement issued to RTÉ News, they said they deeply regret the "distress and upset" that it causes patients and their families.
The apology comes as a 64-year-old man with bowel cancer told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that he has been struggling to get chemotherapy treatment in the hospital.
In September, John Moran waited on an Emergency Department hospital trolley for more than 30 hours for chemotherapy treatment because there were no beds available on the cancer ward.
Mr Moran also spent 46 hours on an ED trolley last weekend due to a bed shortage.
He needed an angiogram to check if a recently implanted stent had moved following heart attack concerns.
"I was left there from Saturday night until Monday evening just on a trolley" he said.
"I was more or less left in the same place for the duration I was in there. The hardest part for me is... you're just trying to pass the time. You're left in a corner sitting there and they [staff] pass up and pass down."
His family say the health service is failing him.
Also speaking on the programme, Mr Moran’s daughter Veronica Moran said that "to be told if you don't get your treatment, you're going to die and then when you agree to your treatment you have to fight to get your treatment. It's a joke."
Ms Moran said that her father looked "so lost" and like he wanted "to give up" on the trolley.
Management at Galway's University Hospital say they "make every effort to ensure cancer patients are prioritised and have two dedicated cancer wards in UHG. These wards have been particularly busy over the last number of days".
The statement continued: "There has been an increase in number of emergency cancer patients admitted and unfortunately this has had an impact on some elective cancer patients' appointments as we have had to clinically prioritise some patients. We deeply regret the distress and upset that this causes patients and their families."
All departments in University Hospital Galway are currently extremely busy, according to the hospital.
They said that "over the last number of days we have seen on average 200 patients in our ED department".
516 people were on trolleys or wards on Tuesday waiting for admission to a hospital bed nationwide.
The figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show that the hospital worst affected was University Hospital Galway, with 47 patients waiting.
Galway's hospital crisis is nothing new, at the end of 2015, then taoiseach Enda Kenny said the Emergency Department was "not fit for purpose".
Now, for the second time in two weeks, the hospital has advised people not to attend the its Emergency Department unless absolutely necessary due to capacity issues.
We need your consent to load this SoundCloud contentWe use SoundCloud to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
