The Director of the Health Services Executive (HSE) National Hospital Office, Pat McLoughlin, has asked for a report into the circumstances surrounding the death of an elderly man in Monaghan hospital.
In a statement released today, the HSE said the local hospital network would carry out the inquiry and would report to Mr McLoughlin as soon as it is complete.
The move follows the death of the 70-year-old man at Monaghan hospital where he attended on Thursday with a bleeding ulcer.
According to today's Irish Times, because the hospital is not allowed to carry out emergency surgery it attempted to transfer him to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, where he had undergone previous surgery.
Our Lady of Lourdes had no intensive care bed available and suggested he be moved to Cavan General Hospital, but there was no intensive care bed available there either. Staff at Monaghan hospital also tried to get him to the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, but its intensive care beds were also full.
The patient continued to bleed and despite being transfused with several units of blood at Monaghan hospital, died there on Friday.
The Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance last night called for an investigation into the circumstances of the man's death.