HSE MidWest’s Regional Executive Officer has warned the new 96-bed block due to open at University Hospital Limerick in the coming months will not be a silver bullet for the trolley crisis.
It follows the publication of new National Healthcare Performance Data, which shows significant improvements in waiting lists, patient stay times and treatments in the region.
According to the report, the average wait time for an appointment in the MidWest is down to 5.7 months, while the numbers seen at all outpatient clinics in the region is growing year on year.
Patient stay times across the six hospitals have also remained largely consistent, despite what’s been described as “an enormous growth in demand from a growing and ageing population.”
Testament to this, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has today recorded 104 patients on trolleys at UHL, making it by far the busiest facility in the country.
According to HSE MidWest’s Regional Executive Officer, the region’s prevailing issue is bed capacity, but Sandra Broderick insists the opening of a new 96-bed block in September of this year will not solve the issue alone.
The future of a second new 96-bed block also planned for the Dooradoyle campus hangs in the balance, however, with An Bord Pleanála due to make a ruling on a local objection.
Since January, University Hospital Limerick has seen 50,000 attendances at its Emergency Department and is on track to exceed last year’s record of 87,000.
HIQA’s review to determine if another ED is needed in the MidWest has been pushed back until September, with the HSE stating in its submission that there’s a high level of consensus “to maximise the functionality of the current Urgent and Emergency Care Model rather than reverting to a more distributed model as was previously the case in the MidWest”.
While the regulator is understood to be waiting to factor in impending hospital bed and population capacity projections from the ESRI.
Sandra Broderick says the disproportionate number of Model 2 beds in the MidWest is leading to challenges in the delivery of urgent and emergency care.
The data also shows the MidWest has fewer consultants than any other health region in the country, with just 204 across Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary.
However the HSE MidWest REO claims the findings prove the region is the most productive in the country relative to the level of investment it’s received.
Sandra Broderick also insists that work is ongoing with HSE CEO Bernard Gloster to bring the number of consultants here up to par with the rest of the nation.
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