The Midland Health Board is investigating a complaint that an 86-year-old man died hours after he was refused admittance to Portlaoise General Hospital.
His family alleges that the man was turned away although he had to have oxygen administered to him in the hospital casualty department.
The hospital yesterday referred press queries to the Midland Health Board.
The family also alleges, in a report in this week's Leinster Express, that he had to have oxygen administered during his ambulance journey home, and for half an hour after he got home.
Mr Peter Brophy's son, Richard, said his father, who lived alone but whom he saw every day, had been in good health up to December 5th, when he became ill.
"He was in town Friday and had his couple of pints," he said. On Saturday he went for a haircut.
Their GP called an ambulance and sent Mr Brophy to Portlaoise General Hospital to be admitted, he said.
He was in the casualty department for five hours, Mr Brophy says. During that time, various diagnostic tests were done and he was seen by two doctors. Hospital staff told the family that nothing adverse had emerged in the tests and that the man was fit to go home, says Mr Brophy.
The family insisted that he should be admitted. In addition to needing oxygen, his father got sick at one stage in the casualty department but, he says, the hospital maintained he was fit to go home.
When the family said they would not take Mr Brophy senior home, the hospital sent him home in an ambulance, they say.
During the evening Mr Brophy's condition worsened and he died during the night.
The family made a formal complaint to the Midland Health Board and had a meeting with representatives of the hospital last week. At the meeting, the family got "no satisfactory answers, no explanation, not really," he said. The hospital representatives read out the results of diagnostic tests on his father.
"According to their list he could have been out playing football."
The Midland Health Board said yesterday that at this meeting, "the family were also advised that if they had any other issues which they wished to raise or have clarified, the hospital would facilitate a further meeting."
Mr Brophy said the family wants an explanation as to what happened and why his father was not admitted.
The health board said, "Issues raised both in correspondence and at that meeting are still being followed up by the hospital's complaints officer and will be concluded when key staff are contacted on return from annual leave."