Judge criticises giving A&E priority to those on drugs

A DISTRICT judge yesterday described as “dispiriting” the way in which people under the influence of drugs were sometimes given priority in emergency departments ahead of victims of car accidents.

Judge David Riordan made the comments after hearing a guilty plea relating to a man who had taken drugs and had been admitted to hospital until the intoxication wore off.

“It is dispiriting to hear it, ongoing; there are waiting lists and difficulties in A&E departments that these are the kind of things clogging up the matters.