RECORD OVERCROWDING AT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL LIMERICK has further brought into question the standard of health services across the Mid-West.
On Thursday, 126 patients were waiting on trolleys in beds and in wards at UHL, the highest number ever recorded in the past sixteen years since the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation began its Trolley Watch list in 2006. Tallies of 100 in March and February were the previous records.
In 2017, UHL opened a €24m emergency department over three times the size of the ED it replaced. In addition a 60 bed modular unit was opened last year also designed to increase capacity at the hospital, but neither of these improvements have delivered a reduction in pressure at the emergency department, which is one of the busiest in the country seeing a throughput of over 65,000 patients a year.
Representatives of the INMO have described conditions at UHL as dangerous. INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations Mary Fogarty said the record number of patients on trolleys at Limerick University hospital means the bed management system there is completely broken, and has been allowed to fester for far too long.
She stated, “We need to see the emergency plan activated for the hospital today and a public announcement of same. Hospital management need to urgently stop admitting patients for elective care as there are no beds within the hospital which is completely congested”.
Fogarty added, “Senior HSE management and Minister Donnelly need to urgently act on what is a chaotic situation for the people of the Mid West. The complete mismanagement is unacceptable and is having real consequences on the health outcomes of patients.
Members of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign have expressed their frustration. “Last week Clare councillors abandoned their commitment to support an Emergency Department for Clare. We will be highlighting this situation again at the Regional Health Forum on May 22nd,” a spokesperson confirmed.
Cllr Donna McGettigan (SF) said token measures to try improve conditions at UHL have had little or no impact. She labelled the figure of 126 as “beyond belief and truly scandalous”. She commented, “The government is clearly to blame as they have ignored the concerns of the staff and campaigners for years and failed to act in any meaningful way to address this crisis. These are incredible numbers when you consider the research report by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Britain, which noted that there is, on average, one excess death for every 67 patients forced to linger in an emergency department for 8 to 12 hours”.
“It is an absolute disgrace that the situation has been allowed to get this bad, and another mess Fine Gael have caused after their 11 years in government. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Health have washed their hands of this crisis and failed to take any meaningful actions to deal with the trolley crisis at UHL. Patients are being packed into this hospital like sardines, and nurses and doctors are being forced to treat sick patients on corridors and work in a very dangerously overcrowded environment. A number of staff have work-related stress and it is impossible for them to deliver the proper care people deserve in this overcrowded situation. We need urgent action to reduce the huge levels of overcrowding in our hospital, to ensure the safety of patients and staff.” The Shannon councillor added.