Calls are being made to end what’s being described as ‘discrimination’ in the provision of healthcare in the Midwest.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is visiting University Hospital Limerick this lunchtime, on a day when trolley numbers in Dooradoyle have spiked.
The Taoiseach is touring UHL’s emergency department this afternoon and is meeting with staff and senior management within the UL Hospitals Group.
It comes on a day when the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation recorded 85 patients waiting for a bed at the facility during morning rounds.
40 of those were in the emergency department, while a further 45 were located in overflow areas of wards.
That’s two thirds more patients waiting for a bed than the next busiest facility, which is Cork University Hospital.
Barefield-based Independent Councillor Ann Norton, who’s a former member of the Regional Health Forum, says further resources at UHL are now urgently needed.
The Taoiseach’s visit comes on a day when it was revealed no new acute beds will be opened in the region this year.
The HSE’s Acute Operations department has told Clare Independent TD Michael McNamara that none of the 209 beds scheduled to be opened this year will be opened within the UL Hospitals Group.
Ballyvaughan-based member of the Midwest Hospitals Campaign group, Noeleen Moran, who is to meet the Taoiseach separately today, feels there have been ’empty words’ from the Cabinet table on healthcare in the region.
Listen back to the full interview here:
