The UL Hospitals Group is urging people to consider all healthcare alternatives to the Emergency Department, as high levels of overcrowding persist at the region’s main hospital.
In a statement to Clare FM, hospital management have warned that long wait times are inevitable for those with less serious conditions.
It comes as the latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show there were 100 patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick during morning rounds, as Clare FM’s Fiona Cahill reports.
The UL Hospitals Group has warned that average daily attendances at University Hospital Limerick have continued to exceed those recorded in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
224 patients, on average, presented to the ED every day between March 1st and 27th, with the highest number of 278 recorded on Monday this week.
Today, the INMO have recorded 100 patients on trolleys at the Dooradoyle facility, 51 of those in the Emergency Department.
ULHG says all hospitals in the group across Limerick and Clare are caring for high numbers of inpatients, many of whom are very sick, with complex conditions.
Hospital management say that with the hospital in a state of escalation for most of the month, they’ve continued working to create surge capacity and maximise numbers of inpatient beds.
Additional ward rounding continues in UHL so appropriate patients can be discharged or transferred to Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospital.
Work is also ongoing with HSE Mid West Community Healthcare to further expedite suitable discharges home or to community care beds.
The UL Hospitals Group has apologised to all impacted patients and are reassuring that they’re doing everything possible to maximise patient flow and minimise wait times.
The group says long waits in the ED are inevitable for patients with less urgent conditions and they’re reminding people to consider all healthcare alternatives, such as the Ennis Injury Unit, GPs, GP out of hours services and pharmacists.
Full statement from the UL Hospitals Group
During the month of March, average daily attendances at the Emergency Department (ED) in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) have continued to exceed the 195 average recorded during 2019, the last full year prior to the pandemic.
In addition, all hospitals in the Group are caring for high numbers of inpatients, many of whom are very sick with complex conditions.
An average 224 patients have presented to ED between 1st and 27h March, with the highest attendance of the month, 278, recorded on 13th March. This was one of four dates on which the attendances exceeded 270, all occurring either immediately before or after the weekend (three Mondays and one Friday).
Lowest attendances (including the lowest, 159, on Sunday 5th March), and the only days on which presentations were fewer than the 2019 average, were on weekends.
The bank holiday weekend, including St Patrick’s Day, 17th March, was one of the busiest periods of the month, with 220 attendances on Friday 17th, followed by 207, 180 and 270 over the next three days.
With the hospital in a state of escalation for most of the month, we have continued working to create surge capacity and maximise numbers of inpatient beds, as provided for in our escalation framework.
Additional ward rounding continues in UHL so appropriate patients can be discharged or transferred to Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospital.
Work is also ongoing with our colleagues in HSE Mid West Community Healthcare to further expedite suitable discharges home or to community care beds.
None of this work in any way minimises the inconvenience to admitted patients who are waiting for hospital beds. We apologise to all impacted patients and would like to reassure the public that we are doing everything possible to maximise patient flow and minimise wait times.
As we work to balance the high demands on ED with the needs of inpatients while safely maintaining time-critical and other elective surgical activity, we remind the public to continue first considering all available healthcare alternatives to ED, as long waits in the department are inevitable for patients with less than urgent conditions.
Anyone with a serious injury or unexpected illness should come to ED or call 999/112. Less acutely unwell patients are asked to first consider our Injury Units, GPs, out-of-hours GP services and pharmacists before attending ED.
Injury Units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s are operating as normal. Opening hours for Ennis and Nenagh Injury Units are 8am -8pm and St John’s Injury Unit 8am-7pm. For full contacts for the units, and the services available there, please see: https://www2.hse.ie/services/injury-units/
As highlighted in the Deloitte Report, the shortage of acute bed capacity is the fundamental driver of hospital overcrowding in the Midwest.
We’re grateful for the support of government for the increase in bed capacity since the start of the pandemic, with an additional 98 inpatient beds and 10 critical care beds at UHL.
In addition, construction of a new 96-bed block development is ongoing at UHL. However, this will take two years to complete, and approximately half the new beds will be additional bed stock, with the remainder replacing beds currently in the multi-occupancy nightingale wards in the older parts of UHL.
We welcome the recent favourable comments of the Taoiseach recently towards a second 96-bed block that’s provided for in the UHL site masterplan. This block is currently being planned with HSE Capital & Estates. We expect that plans will be submitted to the HSE nationally for the second 96-bed block in the first quarter of this year.
