Campaigners in Clare are urging the Health Minister to take urgent action to resolve overcrowding issues at the region’s main hospital.
It follows a letter from eleven Consultants to the CEO of the UL Hospitals Group, who’ve expressed “deep concern” over patient safety at University Hospital Limerick.
Consultants say it’s clear that confidence in management structures at University Hospital Limerick has been severely eroded in recent months, and that strenuous efforts are needed to restore it.
They want to see the non-covid pathway at University Hospital Limerick stopped immediately and for the hospital to revert back to normal pathways through the A&E.
Their letter has been presented to Government by Clare Independent TD Michael McNamara, who’s called for this year’s “bonanza tax take” to be earmarked for capital works aimed at addressing capacity issues.
In response to the Consultants’ letter, the Health Minister has said he’s concerned about overcrowding and insisted that Government is committed to improving ED services for the people of the mid-west.
Minister Stephen Donnelly says while there’s been significant investment in the hospital, including on providing more beds, Government is committed to further investment.
He’s reassuring that work is underway on short-term, medium-term and long-term actions to address problems identified at the hospital.
Spokesperson for the Midwest Hospitals Campaign, Noeleen Moran says there appears to be widespread recognition of the problem, but she insists that Ministerial intervention is now needed.
The Irish Patients Association has criticised the slow response to the ongoing issues, saying there’s been too many reports with no real action taken.
Spokesperson Stephen McMahon says while the plans may provide comfort to management and politicians, they can’t keep burying their heads in the sand.
He’s hopeful that staffing changes in the HSE will help move things forward in a positive way.
Listen back to the full interview here:
The UL Hospitals Group has responded, saying “We can confirm that a response to the consultants letter has issued from the CEO’s Office.
The main point of concern relates to the patient pathways established at UHL, and in hospitals across the country, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This has involved changes in our Emergency Department and in both our acute medical and surgical assessment units to stream patients into Covid and non-Covid streams, based on national clinical guidance. These pathways have been agreed by the Medicine Directorate and the Executive Management Team, including the Clinical Director for Medicine and the Chief Clinical Director.
It is our intention to reverse the changes in our clinical pathways when the time is appropriate and to improve access to our assessment units in line with their stated purpose. This is highlighted in the recent HIQA inspection report and will be acted on when the time is appropriate in the context of the current high levels of Covid-19 activity and the wider work currently being engaged in at UHL with colleagues from the HSE nationally and from HSE Mid West Community Healthcare.
This team has been established to devise and implement specific actions to deal with the challenges in responding to the unprecedented level of demand for services at UHL and the wider region in recent months. This team will examine, among other things, how we optimise existing resources and improve patient flow.
The establishment of this new group follows a review of unscheduled care at UHL carried out by HSE personnel in May and June. The team is similar to teams that have recently supported services in both Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Kerry.
We are currently engaging on a collaborative programme of work to implement an integrated approach to the current challenges over the next four to six weeks, commencing this week.
In addition to this focus on processes, a significant increase in resources for the acute and community services in the MidWest is required.
We welcome the recent investment in acute bed capacity in the MidWest, including the approval by the HSE board of a 96-bed block for UHL. Even with delivery of this project, our region will remain considerably short of the required bed capacity to meet the growing demand from our population – and considerably below other regions. We look forward to working with all parties as we seek to increase acute bed capacity, staffing (including NCHDs) and technology resources to meet this demand”.
