Tag Archives: Emergency Department (ED)

HEALTH Minister Stephen Donnelly has admitted he is concerned about the “significant risk” to patients attending the ED in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) which was identified in a recent report. After welcoming the recent Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report following the unannounced inspection of the Emergency Department (ED) in Limerick in March, Minister Donnelly said he was concerned about some its main findings. He was responding to a Dáil question tabled by Limerick Sinn Féin Deputy Maurice Quinlivan, who asked the minister what steps are being taken to address the issues raised in the HIQA report following its unannounced inspection of the ED in UHL. Eleven local hospital consultants recently called for immediate action to bring an “intolerable situation for patients and staff to an end” at University Hospital Limerick. The consultants have asked UL Hospitals’ Group chief executive officer, Colette Cowan to work with them to correct immediate problems so that this current “intolerable situation for patients …

ATTENDANCES at the Emergency Department (ED) at the region’s main hospital continue to hit record levels last seen before the pandemic. In a statement, the University of Limerick Hospitals Group (ULHG) confirmed that well in excess of 200 patients have been presenting every 24 hours at the ED in Dooradoyle. It has again asked members of the public to “consider all care options” before attending. In the 24-hour period to 8am on Wednesday (August 18), 229 patients attended the ED. A total of 241 attended the ED in the previous 24-hour period. “This continues a pattern of high attendances to ED around the country which has been sustained over a number of weeks and current activity levels remain far in excess of the 195 average attendances at our ED recorded in 2019, the last full year pre-pandemic,” a statement said. The hospital has also seen an increase in the number of Covid-positive patients being treated. As of Wednesday, there were …