Nurses Call For Investigation Into Overcrowding After UHL Records Highest Trolley Numbers In History
The region’s main hospital has recorded the highest ever level of overcrowding of any Irish hospital in the country.
The latest figures from the INMO show there were 97 patients waiting for beds at University Hospital Limerick this morning, 54 of those in the Emergency Department.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is renewing it’s call on HIQA to investigate the overcrowding issue at the Dooradoyle facility.
Speaking with Clare FM’s Fiona Cahill in the past hour, the INMO’s Midwest Representative, Mary Fogarty says despite major investment in capacity at the hospital, it’s making no dent in the consistent overcrowding problem in the hospital.
She believes it would be “reckless” if either HIQA, the HSE nationally or the Department of Health didn’t examine the situation.
UL Hospitals Group statement:
We apologise to all patients who are facing long wait times for a bed at University Hospital Limerick. The hospital remains under severe pressure as a result of sustained, high levels of activity at our Emergency Department.
At 8am this morning, there were 80 admitted patients on trolleys in the Emergency Department, Medical Assessment Unit(MAU), Surgical Assessment Unit and, in line with our escalation plan, on our general wards. Other admitted patients were either on beds/designated bed spaces in ED and MAU before transfer to a bed in a designated inpatient area. In line with our escalation plan, we have also opened surge capacity to manage extremely high activity levels.
There has been an average of 235 daily attendances to our ED over the past week. This compares to 195 presentations per day during 2019, the last year pre-pandemic. Attendances over the weekend were unusually high and this was followed by 265 attendances on Monday, the busiest day of the year so far.
There are 60 COVID-positive inpatients being treated in the hospital, of whom eight are receiving critical care.
We also continue to manage a COVID outbreak in the hospital that is affecting a number of inpatient wards, increasing demand for isolation beds and impacting on patient flow. High incidence of Covid-19 in community, including outbreaks in nursing homes, is affecting our capacity to discharge/transfer patients whose acute episode of care has concluded. Delayed transfers of care are above average.
There are 211 WTE (whole-time equivalent) staff unavailable for work today due to Covid-19
We continue to follow our Escalation Plan, which includes use of surge capacity, undertaking additional ward rounds, accelerating discharges and identifying patients for transfer to our Model 2 hospitals. We have reduced scheduled care this month in order to concentrate on emergency medical and surgical patients in the context of the additional challenges presented by the Omicron wave. We are gradually increasing scheduled care however this is being kept under review on a daily basis as we continue to prioritise our sickest patients.
We reiterate our advice to members of the public to consider all available care options before presenting to the ED. Injury units in Ennis and Nenagh are open from 8am to 8pm, and in St John’s from 8am to 7pm, seven days a week. Injury Units are for the treatment of broken bones, dislocations, sprains strains, wounds, scalds and minor burns. More information on our Injury Units is available here. Anyone with less serious illness or conditions should contact their GPs or out-of-hours GP services. However, if you are seriously injured or ill or are worried your life is at risk the ED will assess and treat you as a priority.
We apologise to any patient who has experienced a long wait for admission to UHL during this period of exceptionally high demand for our services.
