Leo Varadkar: 'Indefensible' to spend 24 hours on a trolley in A&E
The Health Minister Leo Varadkar has said it is indefensible that any patient should spend more than 24 hours on a trolley in the Emergency Department.
But Leo Varadkar has admitted that on any given day, there are 30 to 40 patients doing just that.
His comments come a day after it emerged a 91 year old man spent 29 hours on a trolley at Tallaght Hospital.
The Hospital has said it is investigating how that happened, but it also wants to find out how the information got to the media.
Minister Varadkar has said he does not blame individual managers at Tallaght for the delay.
"Almost all of them are doing the best they can, unfortunately this isnt an isolated incident," Mr Varadkar said.
"It is indefensible that anyone should spend more than 24 hours in an emergency department, unfortunately on any given day there could be 30 or 40 people who spend more than 24 hours in an emergency department and most of them are elderly people because most of the people in hospitals now are elderly and that is the reality of it."
