Cork hospitals ask people to keep A&E for emergencies as patient numbers grow

Some essential services are running at 35% to 45% capacity and blood samples are taking 10 hours to process instead of 2. 

The emergency department at Mercy University Hospital Cork is experiencing a surge in presentaions. Hospital IT systems have been crippled after a cyberattack on HSE systems. 

Management at Mercy University Hospital (MUH) have appealed to patients not to present at A&E unless in an emergency. 

In a statement, this afternoon the hospital also said it has activated its escalation policy to deal with the high number of attendees at the emergency department.