Pat Kenny has said he does not have "great optimism" for winter after his daughter was rushed to hospital in what he described as a "dreadful experience".
The Newstalk presenter confronted Minster for Health Stephen Donnelly about the issues facing Irish hospitals recounting his own daughter's experience after she suffered a fall during the summer.
It came after Minister Donnelly warned that a "very difficult winter" was ahead for the HSE with the potential for a 'twindemic' of Covid-19 and flu.
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Speaking of his daughter's situation, Pat said she had suffered a serious fall and was rushed to the Emergency Department.
"My own dreadful experience at St Vincent's Hospital with my daughter in the summer doesn't give me great optimism for how things will be in the winter," he said.
"People were kept overnight and not treated at all. A good triage service would say, 'Listen missus, stay put because if you come in here, we're not going to do anything to you. You'll just be sitting in a chair for 12 hours, and we might see you tomorrow.
"Would you not be better off putting up with this discomfort for 12 hours at home rather than sitting on a chair for 12 hours?'"
The presenter emphasised that patients need to be told the truth and should be aware that they will not be treated quickly "even if they're brought in by ambulance".
Minister Donnelly said triage services are improving in many Emergency Departments and suggested a new programme aimed at ensuring Emergency Department Consultant Doctors are on the floor at least 16 hours a day would help.
Pat continued: "My concern was, obviously, with my daughter who fell, banged her head, blood flowing, concussed and was knocked out for several minutes … right throughout the night she wasn't checked for vital signs.
"They said, 'you'll get a scan in the morning', by which time - happily she was not - but she could have been dead from a bleed in the brain.
"And then a doctor has the affrontery to say to my wife, when the bandage was taken off, and my daughter said, 'please put it back on because it eases the discomfort'… he handed her a fresh bandage and said: 'Do it yourself.'"
Minister Donnelly agreed: "That doesn't sound right."
Pat added that he believes some staff have "run out of empathy, to be quite honest.
"They've run out of road; run out of empathy."
Minister Donnelly said the best way people could protect themselves and the health service this winter is to make sure they get all their jabs.
He said: "My ask, and the ask of our public health workers, is for everybody to go and get the COVID vaccine and get the flu vaccine."
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