Sligo hospital consultant apologises for unacceptably poor care standard during overcrowding

A doctor at Sligo University Hospital says he's spent a lot of this week apologising to people for a standard of care which is unacceptably poor.

Fergal Hickey, consultant in Emergency Medicine at Sligo says the overcrowding at the hospital this week is the worst he's ever seen there.

A total of 54 people were on trolleys at the hospital on Wednesday, and there were 53 people being treated for Covid there.

Mr Hickey says the overcrowding is due to a combination of factors including a high number of people attending the ED, a high number of Covid cases, and the fact that beds in some nursing homes cant be used due to Covid issues.

He says they've had no option but to treat people in totally unsuitable conditions at times.