Two out of three X ray rooms at University College Hospital, Galway have been closed down following a warning by a medical physicist that radiation levels from equipment posed a risk to staff and patients.
The Western Health Board said yesterday that the equipment involved had reached the expiry date for its normal working life.
Consultants at the facility, the main hospital serving the west, have sought an urgent meeting with the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, as kidney, bladder, bowel and stomach screening procedures have been severely curtailed. Patients have had to be referred to hospitals in Dublin and Castlebar, Co Mayo.
Health hoard, chief executive officer, Mr Eamon Hannan, said the equipment needed to be replaced at a cost of £800,000, while an application for funding had been sent to the Department of Health.
