A Clare Government TD insists pressure must be kept on the Health Minister to reopen the Ennis A&E.
It comes amid fresh calls for the expansion of the Ennis facility this week, in light of extremely high ED attendances at University Hospital Limerick and a repeated surge in the level of overcrowding there.
Just under a month on from a record-breaking 150 patients recorded on trolleys at the region’s main hospital, the number of people without a bed at the facility has risen above 140 once again this week.
That number has dropped to 115 today, according to the latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, but the Dooradoyle facility remains by far the busiest in the country.
Just two weeks ago, the HSE issued a letter outling its reasons against reopening the A&Es at Ennis, Nenagh and St. John’s which were closed in 2008.
Defending this position, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has doubled down on his view that having an A&E in Clare’s county town would be “unsafe”, but he’s pledged to continue providing funding to support the facility going forward.
Party colleague of the Minister, and Meelick Fianna Fáil Deputy Cathal Crowe, says although he believes certain strides have been made in terms of easing the overcrowding issue at UHL in recent years, the Government must do more to support the phased reopening of Ennis’s A&E.
You can listen to the full interview here:
115 people were languishing on trolleys at the Dooradoyle facility this morning and although the ED was equipped in 2017 to cope with 190 presentations daily, it saw an average of 245 a day last month.
Shannon Sinn Féin local election candidate James Ryan says it’s getting to the point that chronic overcrowding is almost normalised at UHL.
