Health Minister: Indefensible That Patients Should Spend More Than A Day On

When asked why the situation was getting worse, Mr Woods said the population was aging and this was placing an increasing stress on the health system.

It said: “The hospital also has a strong duty of care to safeguard the interests of all its patients and will take necessary steps to ensure these are upheld at all times”.

The man’s wife, who is also in her 90s, was also on a trolley for more than nine hours on Monday night.

The decision to subject a doctor to an internal review after he turned whistleblower to highlight the plight of a 91-year-old A&E patient who endured 29 hours on a hospital trolley was condemned last night.

His comments come after the publication of a letteer from an unnamed consultant to management at Tallaght hospital, complaining of the “inhumane and torturous conditions” imposed on a couple in their 90s.

The controversy was raised in the Dail with Taoiseach Enda Kenny calling for an explanation over the 29-hour trolley wait and asking who was responsible for failing to secure a bed for the man.

Gray said in the letter to the hospital’s CEO and Minister for Health Leo Varadkar that it was an example of how a “dysfunctional system disgracefully treats a few of our senior citizen”, allowing them to “fester” on a trolley.

He said the extra trolleys constituted a fire hazard and claimed two patients requiring isolation were accommodated in a cubicle surrounded by three walls and a curtain.

Dr Fergal Hickey said similar cases happen in hospitals all around the country every week.

He said overcrowding remains a serious challenge, but that waiting lists have been reduced from 16 weeks to four.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine has said the Taoiseach is being disingenuous in suggesting the case at Tallaght Hospital is unique.

One reason for the delay in finding a bed for the man was because the allocated bed was in a wifi “blackspot”, according to sources, where wireless monitoring of his blood pressure could not be conducted.

“They are now in the process of purchasing the various wifi kits to install around the hospital”, McMahon told the programme. “Well-intentioned whistleblowers’ concerns should be listened to rather than attempts made to silence them, especially when there is clear evidence that any patient over the age of 75 years detained on a trolley in an emergency department for more than 12 hours is likely to have a poorer medical outcome”, he said.

McMahon also described it as “disturbing” that a few experts have suggested that patients are dying as a result of overcrowding in Irish hospitals.

“It is only a matter of time before we disclose our next crowding-related death at Tallaght Hospital while crowding is tolerated”.