Overcrowding at the region’s main hospital has increased sharply today.
75 patients are waiting for a bed at University Hospital Limerick, while the facility is still treating the highest number of COVID-19 patients in the country.
Nearly 1 in 4 patients who are on trolleys today in hospitals nationwide are in University Hospital Limerick.
It’s among the highest daily numbers provided by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation so far in 2021.
42 of the patients in Dooradoyle are in the emergency department, with 33 in overflow areas of wards.
It comes as the facility continues to treat by far the highest number of COVID-19 patients in the country, with 40 confirmed cases in the hospital as of this morning.
4 of these people in being treated in intensive care, while there are a further 31 suspected cases of the virus in UHL.
The UL Hospitals Group has previously told Clare FM it has put into effect all the appropriate infection control measures to mitigate the risk to patients and staff.
It’s understood the ED in Dooradoyle remains exceptionally busy today, with a high volume of presentations still presenting to the hospital.
UL Hospitals Group statement:
UL Hospitals Group continues to manage an outbreak of COVID-19 in University Hospital Limerick. The outbreak has impacted three inpatient wards, and contact tracing and testing of staff and patients is ongoing. In line with national guidance, all appropriate infection prevention and control measures have been implemented.
This has involved cohorting of positive patients and contacts on the three wards. While the wards remain open, visiting of patients on these wards has been restricted to compassionate grounds, and all relatives and loved ones have been informed.
Visiting on all other inpatient wards is unaffected, and is facilitated by prior arrangement. Please see here for further details. Members of the public are reminded that the Emergency Department, Acute Surgical Assessment Unit, and Acute Medical Assessment Unit at UHL are not open to visitors.
While outbreaks undoubtedly impact on patient flow, the addition of more single-room capacity at UHL over the past year has helped us to isolate and cohort patients in the hospital, and on this occasion there have been no inpatient beds blocked due to infection control measures.
However, the high numbers of patients waiting for inpatient beds include many patients with complex medical conditions who require admission and isolation in our single-room accommodations. The experience in emergency admissions in UHL in recent weeks and months reflects the trend in hospitals across the country.
UHL’s Emergency Department (ED) has been exceptionally busy during the summer, and September has seen no lessening of demand for emergency services. During September 2021, daily attendances at the ED averaged 240, compared with 195 in 2019, the last full year of the pandemic. Average daily attendances have also increased by 22% on the daily average of 197 recorded in September 2020.
Over the past four weeks, daily presentations reached a high of 290, and exceeded 250 on 14 days of the month. On only two days of the month were attendances fewer than 200 – 187 on September 19-20, and 186 on September 24-25.
This is not to minimise in any way the anxiety experienced by patients who experience long waits. We regret that any patient has to wait for a bed. Every effort is being made by management and staff to reduce these wait times and to maximise patient flow.
We continue to follow our escalation plan, which includes additional ward rounds, accelerating discharges and identifying patients for transfer to our Model 2 hospitals. However, current demand for our services is multi-faceted and high numbers of admitted patients require a level of care that, for the Mid-West, can only be provided at UHL. In general, patients currently admitted to UHL are sicker and with more complicated conditions, and require longer inpatient stays to recover.
We remind members of the public to consider all their care options before presenting to the department. Injury units in Ennis and Nenagh are open from 8am to 8pm, and St John’s is open from 8am to 7pm. 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.
