The HSE has asked people not to attend the emergency department at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar unless "absolutely necessary" to allow it to facilitate emergency cases overnight.
In a statement this evening the HSE said the hospital’s emergency department was “very busy at present”.
“In order to safely manage patients waiting in the emergency department for admission and have facilities available for emergencies that may present this evening and tonight the hospital is asking people not to attend the emergency department unless it is absolutely necessary,” the HSE statement said.
“The Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar regrets that any patient has to wait for long periods for admission and is making every effort to ensure that patients are admitted to beds as appropriate across the hospital,” the statement continued, adding that the situation was being kept under “continuous review”.
It comes just weeks after Beaumont Hospital asked patients to “avoid or delay” their visit to its emergency department because of overcrowding at the Dublin hospital
Figures collected by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation showed that up to 400 people were being treated on trolleys in hospital emergency departments on many nights last month.