A Clare member of the Oireachtas Health Committee is calling for a second external review of University Hospital Limerick.
It comes a day after the highest ever level of overcrowding at the region’s main hospital for the month of August was recorded, on the firtst day of the month, with 110 patients waiting for a bed at the facility yesterday.
The number of people on trolleys at UHL yesterday continued to spiral on the first day of August, with 110 admitted patients waiting for beds according to INMO figures; the sixth highest figure of any hospital in the country on record.
This morning, that number reduced to 84.
Figures released by the UL Hospitals Group also show that overcrowding at the Dooradoyle facility exceeded that of the entire Eastern region for five consecutive days during the week beginning July 24th.
The ongoing capacity issue has led to renewed calls for a second thorough inspection of the hospital.
The UL Hospitals Group commissioned UK-based auditors Deloitte to undertake a comprehensive review of the group’s six hospitals in March 2022, which resulted in a report published in September of last year.
The report contained recommendations to provide 302 additional inpatient beds within 14 years and to immediately increase medical and nursing staff at the Emergency Department of University Hospital Limerick.
Ennistymon Senator Martin Conway, who’s a member of the Oireachtas Health Committee, insists an expert team should return to the facility to assess it, over a year on from the initial inspection.
You can listen to the full interview below.
The Health Minister has announced that the HSE is to be split into six “health regions” with a view to improving “the health service’s ability to deliver timely, integrated care to patients and service users”.
Marie McMahon, who is a member of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign Group and whose husband passed away on a trolley in UHL in 2023, believes people in the Midwest have been made “second-class citizens” by government health policy.
