People in Clare are being urged not to block up the ED at the region’s main hospital unnecessarily, as record trolley numbers prompt a warning of a dangerous winter ahead.
University Hospital Limerick recorded a 23% year-on-year jump in the level of overcrowding in August.
Nurses are warning that the record summer levels signal the need to curb some services in the months ahead, as Clare FM’s Fiona McGarry reports.
Nurses say just shy of 1,200 patients were left waiting on trolleys at the region’s main hospital last month, the highest ever figure recorded in the month of August.
The latest figures from the INMO represent a 23% increase on the same period last year and a 161% jump on the same month, only five years ago.
Nurses at Ennis General Hospital, meanwhile, recorded 17 patients on trolleys over the course of the four and a half weeks, compared to none in August last year, and none again in August 2017.
Nationally, there were almost 10,000 patients on trolleys across the month and INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha is warning of a dangerous winter ahead.
A Clare member of the HSE’s Regional Health Forum West is calling on people living locally to stop blocking up the ED unnecessarily and to instead use local services, where possible.
Thre are 64 patients waiting on trolleys there today, and in the past hospital management have stated that some patients would be better served by going to their GP or the likes of Ennis General Hospital.
Fine Gael Councillor Pat Burke says everyone has a part to play this winter in keeping trolley numbers down, while we await completion of the 60-bed modular unit.
That new 60-bed unit is included in the HSE’s 2019 Capital Plan, which has been published today.
The document states that the new unit will open next year, as had already been planned, and that planning is continuing for a new 96-bed block and the relocation of the Maternity Hospital.
No dates are given for those projects, or for Phase 1b of the Minor Injuries Unit in Ennis.
Refurbishment works are being progressed for Raheen Hospital, and a new facility is to replace St. Joseph’s Community Hospital in Ennis, as well as new facilities for the Bushy Park treatment addiction centre.
Two billion is to be invested in capital projects over the next three years and HSE Chief Executive, Paul Reid, says primary care is a focus of the new plan.
