TD demands answers on Galway A&E overcrowding

Galway TD Derek Nolan has said that he will be demanding answers from management at Galway's University Hospital after complaints about conditions at the emergency department there.

The clinical director of the hospital and the Registrar of the A&E will address capacity problems at the unit in a meeting today.

It comes after constituents made complaints to local TDs, including one from a patient who described lying on the floor of the A&E.

Deputy Nolan, who has sought that meeting, said that it is more than just a budgetary problem and he is determined to find a resolution.

"There’s always been problems," he said.

"But the experiences I’m hearing now, people telling me, are the worst that they’ve ever come across.

"The waiting times can be extremely long, and the overcrowding in the A&E is extremely severe, so I think it’s reached a peak, and I think that something needs to be done about it."