The planned opening of a new accident and emergency facility at Naas General Hospital has been delayed over the lack of €1.8 million in funding.
The delay emerged as patients told how they were being kept on trolleys in the hallway of a Portakabin for up to 48 hours because of the lack of facilities at the hospital.
The new A&E ward was due to open tomorrow, but the South Western Area Health Board (SWAHB) said it was postponing the opening because of a lack of revenue to pay for extra staff and higher overheads.
One patient, Mr Peter O'Connor, told The Irish Times of how he spent 48 hours on a trolley in the hallway of a Portakabin, which is acting as a temporary A&E ward.
Mr O'Connor, who suffers from a blood condition, was admitted to the casualty unit on Sunday and was discharged yesterday. He spent his entire time in the hallway of the Portakabin, along with up to nine other men, while a similar number of women were kept in another corridor.
"You had no privacy, no air conditioning, the lights were on all the time," he said. "I got no sleep. It was absolutely sweltering, I was scorched. They had to keep the doors open all the time. The staff are doing their best in absolutely appalling conditions."
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has called the delay "bureaucratic madness".
"As a result patients will continue to lie on trolleys in appalling and sweltering conditions," a spokeswoman said.
According to the spokeswoman, eight people were being kept on trolleys in the Portakabin yesterday, while the number of patients rose as high as 19 on Friday last, one of the hottest days of the year.
Yesterday the confirmed it was unable to open the emergency unit as planned for tomorrow because of funding problems. A spokesman South Western Area Health Board said ongoing discussions with the Eastern Regional Health Authority were continuing in an effort to find the €1.8 million needed to open the unit, which is part of a major redevelopment of the hospital.
He said the board was working "flat out" to obtain the funding and acknowledged conditions were "far from satisfactory".
"The running of the new hospital, which is a much bigger facility, requires additional revenue for its day-to-day operation," he added.
"Since the outset, as part of an ongoing process of dialogue, as new departments are commissioned and become available for operational use, discussions have taken place between the board and the ERHA in relation to the additional funding required."