Lacking dignity - Hospital conditions

SENIOR hospital doctors are rarely given to hyperbole, so when an emergency department consultant at Dublin’s Tallaght Hospital described conditions there as “torture”, it was time for the politicians to take notice.

Dr James Gray voiced his concern to hospital management after a 91-year-old man spent 29 hours on a trolley, while his wife was also on a trolley for nine hours.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny had to take notice when he parried an attack in the Dáil on the issue from Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin. He agreed with the consultant’s view but then proceeded to lay the blame elsewhere .