Rising levels of vomiting bug spark hospital visitor restrictions

Rising levels of the winter vomiting bug have sparked the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore to implement visitor restrictions in recent days.

The management at Tullamore Hospital is asking patients with non-emergency conditions to seek assistance from other parts of the health service such as their local Pharmacist, GP, GP out of hours service, or a local injury unit.

Louisea Burke, Acting General Manger, Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore said: “We have implemented visiting restrictions on all wards in the hospital to help keep our patients and staff safe from Norovirus.

"The hospital continues to be very busy, we are seeing increases of presentations to our Emergency Department. Unfortunately, people attending with less serious illness or injury are experiencing longer waiting times.”

Visiting on critical and compassionate grounds only will continue. These measures will be kept under review.

Injury units are located in Mullingar, Roscommon, Naas and Nenagh. If you require urgent medical attention out of hours, you can visit GP Out-of-hours.

The hospital would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank the public for their understanding and consideration.

Any patient who needs emergency hospital care will be seen and Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore would urge such patients not to delay attending the ED.

Do not delay in seeking medical attention if you suspect you are having a heart attack or stroke, please dial 999 or 112 in an emergency.