Gardaí probe assault on Cork hospital patient shortly before visit by health minister

The victim, a hospital inpatient aged in his 50s, was allegedly struck with an iron bar after he encountered another man outside the Mercy University Hospital

Gardaí arrested and questioned a man, aged in his 50s, in relation to the assault. He has since been released without charge. Picture: Denis Scannell

A patient at Cork's Mercy University Hospital sustained serious injuries in an assault on Sunday, just minutes before health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill visited the hospital.

The assault took place outside the hospital around 9.30am. The victim, a hospital inpatient aged in his 50s, was allegedly struck with an iron bar after he encountered another man shortly after leaving the hospital grounds to smoke a cigarette.