Asylum seeker crisis in hospitals

Serious medical conditions as a result of sleeping outside in the cold

Sir, – In recent weeks, I have looked after multiple young men, international protection applicants, hospitalised with serious medical conditions as a result of sleeping outside in the cold.

The management of these conditions involves lengthy, costly hospital stays. These are funds the State could have saved had these men been provided with even the most simple of accommodation.

Never mind our moral duty to help these vulnerable men in need, there is a fiscal imperative to find a solution to this crisis. – Yours, etc,

Dr RALPH HURLEY O’DWYER,

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Infectious Diseases Registrar,

Mater Misericordae University Hospital,

Dublin 9.