A local representative is expressing fear that patients will be left to die on trolleys at the region’s main hospital unless drastic and urgent action is taken to address the overcrowding crisis.
It follows a worrying spike in trolley numbers at University Hospital Limerick yesterday, with 75 waiting for a bed – a near-record figure.
That has eased today but serious concern is still being expressed about the situation, as Clare FM’s James Mulhall reports:
Today marks two years since the new emergency department at University Hospital Limerick opened.
Despite that being hailed as a game changer for health services in the Midwest, the overcrowding crisis has only worsened in that time.
Even then, hospital officials admitted that they also needed more bed capacity.
Yesterday, 75 people were awaiting admission at Dooradoyle, one of the highest figures recorded so far this year.
Independent Ennis Councillor Ann Norton, who is a member of the HSE’s Regional Health Forum West, is urging the Health Minister, and hospital management, to address it once and for all.
The UL Hospitals Group is apologising to patients affected by the situation and urging them to make use of their GP or the medical assessment units in Ennis in Nenagh, where possible.
The INMO’s Midwest Representative Mary Fogarty has dismissed that apology, saying it’s action that’s needed and not empty words.
She has also hit out at the government for not asking why UHL figures continue to soar, despite investing millions of euro in facilities there:
Today, the number of patients on trolleys in Limerick has dropped significantly to 46, but remains the highest in the country.
