Tag Archives: UHL

A NEW 352-BED Model Four Hospital with an Emergency Department (ED) on a green field site in Ennis is necessary to deal with the county’s long-term growing health care needs. That is one of the key recommendations of a new independent study of acute hospital services, which has been completed by Ennis, University of Limerick Phd student, Sinéad Madden, and is one the first of its kind analysing acute care in the region. Constructing a 352-bed Model 4 hospital with ED in Ennis would address the county’s long-term needs, according to the report. This is comparable to UHL’s capacity in 2014, which operated as a Model 4. Considering the ageing population, this new facility could operate as a centre of excellence and a teaching facility for social and geriatric care considering the ageing population in Clare. It noted cancer care and complex acute emergency cases could still be treated at UHL. Clare needs an extra 302 unplanned acute beds in addition …

A SHANNON family is not happy with recent HSE appointments following the death of their daughter at University Hospital Limerick, a Sinn Féin Deputy has claimed. Aoife Johnston of Cronan Lawn in Shannon, (16) died of meningitis after a thirteen and a half hour gap between presentation and treatment where she attended the Emergency Department having been seen by a GP who queried the possibility of sepsis. Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin Health spokesperson, David Cullinane highlighted a report in The Irish Times about Professor Colette Cowan and her appointment to a new role as a new Integrated Healthcare Area Manager in the Mid-West. Deputy Cullinane asked if Professor Cowan was among a small group offered such posts outside of a public competition? “Will the Minister explain why that happened and why it was done outside of a public competition? “ he asked. “Was the past performance of any individual – not just of one individual but of any …

Significant reductions in scheduled care are in effect across UL Hospitals’ Group until further notice as the group manage high volumes of patients through our Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). There were 127 patients waiting for beds at UHL on Wednesday, which is a very high figure during the summer months. Demand for emergency care at present is adversely affecting wait times and patient experience and at a meeting of the executive management team this Wednesday, attended by the Regional Executive Officer, Ms Sandra Broderick, a number of measures were agreed upon to de-escalate the UHL site, reduce wait times and improve patient flow. This has resulted in the deferral of elective inpatient and day surgery, endoscopy and outpatient appointments until further notice at UHL, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, St John’s Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. Services at University Maternity Hospital Limerick continue as normal and patients there are advised to attend for their appointments. In a statement …

The parents of Aoife Johnston, who died in a “death trap” emergency department at University Hospital Limerick, following “systemic failures” in her care, said today their daughter died a “horrible death”, writes David Raleigh. Carol and James Johnston said they wanted their daughter not to be remembered “as the girl who died on a hospital trolley”, but as “a happy, easy-going, happy-go-lucky girl, who went to school and did summer jobs”. “Our lovely 16-year-old girl and our baby was loved very, very much by us and her sisters,” they said. Following four days of harrowing evidence at Aoife’s inquest, the Limerick Coroner, John McNamara returned a verdict of medical misadventure in her death from meningitis after she contracted sepsis. It was, Mr McNamara agreed, “the only verdict” open to him after it had been proposed by Damien Tansey, senior counsel and solicitor for the Johnston family, and not opposed by barristers representing the HSE/ULHospitals Group and management at the hospital. …

An Assistant Director of Nursing at University Hospital Limerick, giving evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into Aoife Johnston’s death, agreed that the environment inside UHL’s overcrowded emergency department was “dangerous” for patients as Ms Johnston waited more than 12 hours for life-saving antibiotics, which it was heard were not administered in time. Aoife, 16, from Shannon, died at UHL on December 19 2022, following a series of delays in her treatment, the inquest which is being held at Limerick Coroners Court, Kilmallock, heard. Aoife presented at UHL on December 17, along with with a GP referral letter that queried “sepsis”, a life-threatening blood infection, which required “urgent” attention. UHL’s sepsis protocols, requiring patients to be seen by a doctor within 15 minutes, were not followed. Aoife was not triaged until 1 hour 15 minutes after first presenting. When she eventually made it to the emergency department she had to wait more than 12 hours to be examined by a …

A doctor who treated 16-year-old Aoife Johnston prior to her death at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) wept in the witness box at the teenager’s inquest and told Limerick Coroner, John McNamara, that the emergency department at UHL was “not a safe environment” for patients, writes David Raleigh. Dr Leandri Card told how she was trying to manage 191 ED patients on her own, and that she and ED nurses were “overwhelmed” on the night Aoife presented at the hospital. The South African native, who was working as a Senior House Officer (SHO) in UHL’s Emergency Department, said “every inch of the floor space” was taken up by patients on trolleys when Aoife presented on December 17, 2022. “It was like a war-zone. It was an impossible situation,” she said. Dr Card told the inquest, which is being held at Limerick Coroner’s Court in Kilmallock, that due to over-crowding and pressure on staff she and other doctors routinely prescribed medication for …

THE parents of Aoife Johnston who died at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), after waiting 12 hours on a chair while dying of sepsis, told her inquest today they watched her die despite “begging” staff to help, reports David Raleigh. James and Carol Johnston gave emotional and harrowing evidence at Limerick Coroner’s Court of the final moments of their 16-year-old daughter’s death, on December 19, 2022. James Johnston wept and held his face in his hands as he told the inquest that, despite his pleadings for assistance for his daughter, UHL staff “kept given Aoife paracetamol, and putting ice packs on her legs” but that “they just weren’t really helping, there was no help”. Mr Johnston said Aoife had awoken at their home on Saturday, December 17, in “great form” but she became “unwell” around midday, and “took some paracetamol and returned to bed”. Around 3.30pm Aoife vomited and Mr Johnston made an appointment at locum GP service Shannodoc for 4.50pm …

The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF) has announced a range of new measures aimed at alleviating overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick including opening the Acute Medical Assessment Unit in Ennis on 24 hour a day basis. Minister Donnelly visited University Hospital Limerick (UHL) today where he met with management, including Regional Executive Officer Sandra Broderick, the Health Service Executive (HSE) CEO Bernard Gloster, as well as consultants and other clinical leaders. UHL has consistently the highest number of people waiting on trollies for admittance to a hospital bed in the country. In 2024 to date, 17% of those who waited on trollies did so at UHL, a hospital which has 6% of Emergency Department attendances, and 6% of attendances of those over 75 years. “This continued problem is not acceptable to me as Minister, and it most certainly is not acceptable to the people of this region,” said Minister Donnelly. “In an effort to alleviate the problem I have …