Limerick hospital crisis: 47 on trolleys

Forty-seven patients were waiting on trolleys, with no available beds, at University Hospital Limerick early this Monday morning.

Following on from this, the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation is calling for the implementation of the Major Emergency Plan at University Hospital Limerick to bring about “a level of control and safety at the emergency department.”

“At 8am this morning 47 patients, who were admitted in the last 24-48 hours for care, but for whom no beds were available, have been left on trolleys in the emergency department. This is catastrophic and the Major Emergency Plan should have been utilised by management at the hospital to protect the patients, the staff and to assist to make the hospital safe, said Mary Fogarty, INMO industrial relations officer.

Ms Fogarty noted that despite the fact that the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in June 2014 detailed a range of risks resulting from the overcrowding in UHL, it still continues.

“The INMO has assessed that at least an additional 70 acute beds are required at the hospital to cope with the fallout from a totally mismanaged reconfiguration process in the Mid-West.

“We are also appealing to the new Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, to take urgent action in respect of the consistent and deplorable overcrowding in the emergency department, University Hospital Limerick. If €2million is made available by the minister, an additional 30 beds can be in place very shortly, in time for expected winter pressures,” the INMO representative said.