Galway hospital patient ‘had to ring wife when drip fell out’

An elderly hospital patient whose drip had fallen out reportedly had to contact his wife via mobile phone to ask her to get the nurses to put it back in.

Reports this morning said the incident happened at University College Hospital in Galway last month and is under investigation by the Western Health Board.

The reports said the cancer patient, who was in an isolation unit, had been unable to get a response from the nurses’ station despite ringing a “chapel bell” that he had been given.

The man was reportedly given this bell from the hospital’s chapel because the electronic buzzer normally used to call a nurse was not working.