A patient with multiple symptoms including heart trouble had his trolley taken for another patient in the accident and emergency unit of a Dublin hospital last week when he went to the toilet.
His plight, highlighting the ongoing difficulties encountered by patients due to overcrowding in A&E units, was detailed in a letter to the Minister for Health, Ms Harney, yesterday.
His wife, who didn't wish to be identified, told The Irish Times her 54-year-old husband had to spend several hours on a chair in the Mater Hospital before nurses got his trolley back. And then he had to spend a total of five days on the trolley before he got a bed.
Recalling how his trolley was taken, his wife said: "The nurses used it for somebody else because they thought he was gone." She added that on another visit to the hospital some time ago her husband was accommodated on a mattress on the floor. "He has heart trouble, vascular trouble, arthritis and Parkinson's disease," she said.
The woman said her husband was "sore" after spending so many days on a trolley. "It's very sad. You go down there and it's dreadful. It's not the staff.
"They can't do any more than they are doing. They are overstretched," she said. The nurses, she said, advised her to take the matter up with her local TD.
Patients Together, the lobby group formed late last year to campaign for improvements to conditions in A&E, said what happened to the man was "insane" and must stop.
The group has written to Ms Harney, outlining what happened, and is seeking an urgent meeting with her to discuss what they describe as worsening conditions in A&E.
Meanwhile, the Irish Nurses Organisation said there were again 213 patients on trolleys in A&E units across the State yesterday. Ms Harney has said she is determined to improve conditions in A&E.