The Health Minister says long wait times at Emergency Departments in the city are "completely unacceptable".
Minister Stephen Donnelly was speaking on a visit to St Finbarr's Hospital in Douglas this morning.
It comes as new figures show people over the age of 75 faced wait times of up to 29 hours before being admitted at Cork University Hospital last month and almost 27 hours at the Mercy University Hospital.
Waiting times at the two hospitals are nearly double the 13.75 hour average for the same age group in all EDs across the country last month.
Speaking to RedFM News, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says he has asked the HSE to come up with a plan to address the issues that are leading to long wait times:
"I want a plan going into the future - obviously looking at next winter, when it has to work right into the future - saying we need to go hospital by hospital, emergency department by emergency departments, identify what the gaps are - because they're different - the problems in the Mercy are different to the problems in CUH, are different to the problems in Limerick. In one place it's workforce, in another place it's beds, in another place its late discharge of care. We need to be absolutely clear; politically the government is very clear, the department is clear and the HSE is clear that what we've seen in terms of people waiting, particularly the kinds of cases you're talking about right now, are completely, completely unacceptable".
