Tag Archives: UHL

UL Hospitals Group is extending today’s one-day cancellation of all but the most time-critical outpatient appointments at University Hospital Limerick, and some elective surgery at St John’s Hospital and UHL, until this Wednesday, October 20. Patients who are directly affected by these cancellations are being contacted by UL Hospitals Group, and will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity. Outpatient appointments at Ennis, Nenagh, Croom and University Maternity Hospital Limerick are unaffected by the decision. Emergency care will also continue through the Emergency Department (ED) in UHL, and the Injury Units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals will remain open. Services that are unaffected by these cancellations and will continue are: Cancer Clinics; Rapid Access Lung Clinics; Rapid Access Prostate Clinics; Rapid Access Breast Clinics; Nurse led Heart Failure and Cardiac Rehab; Day-case Angiograms; Acute Fracture Clinic, UHL; Endoscopy Clinics; Eye Clinic; ENT Clinic; Endocrinology Clinic; Dermatology Clinic and Vascular Laboratory Clinic. Patients with an appointment at these specific clinics …

IN LINE with national guidance on Covid-19, U Hospitals Group is now asking all patients attending its acute hospitals about their vaccination status. The group stated today that the move was to keep all patients and staff in their hospitals safe from Covid infection, as numbers with the virus remains stubbornly high. All patients will receive care and treatment whatever their vaccination status, a spokesperson for UL Hospital said. “Knowledge of vaccination status enables safer management of patients, and assists with contact tracing either in the hospital or afterwards in the community, if a patient comes into contact with a COVID-19 case in any of our hospitals,” UL Hospitals Group Information on the vaccination status of patients in acute hospitals would be determined and recorded, either prior to admission or as soon as possible thereafter. The request for the information applies particularly for unscheduled attendances at the Emergency Department in University Hospital Limerick. People attending acute hospitals can present the …

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 …

VISITING restrictions imposed at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) earlier this month are being lifted and scheduled visits to inpatient wards can recommence, by arrangement, from tomorrow (Thursday, August 19). The temporary visiting ban announced on August 6 was one of a number of infection control measures adopted in response to an outbreak of Covid-19 at the facility. Hospital management, working closely with infection prevention and control and microbiology colleagues, have now decided it is safe and appropriate to reintroduce hospital visiting in line with the relevant national guidance. Scheduled individual inpatient visits are being coordinated by the clinical nurse managers and ward clerks, in consultation with patients and their families and loved ones. From Wednesday, hospital staff have been making contact with these families and loved ones to arrange/schedule visits. The hospital has warned that members of the public who have not arranged their visit in advance cannot be accommodated. It should be noted that these visits are for inpatients …

MORE than 180 Clare patients were waiting for cataract, hip, knee and small volume procedures last May, new figures have revealed, writes Dan Danaher. The HSE has confirmed there were 99 Clare patients waiting for a cataract operation, 33 for hip, 35 for knee and nine for small volume procedures on May 31. These figures were provided in response to a Dáil question tabled by Deputy Michael McNamara. The HSE recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the last 16 months as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic and more recently as a result of the ransomware attack. While significant progress was made in reducing waiting times from June 2020 onwards, the surge in Covid-19 cases in the first quarter of 2021, and the resultant curtailment of acute hospital services, is reflected in the most recently available waiting list figures to May 2021. On March 23 2021 the HSE published the “Safe Return …

PUBLIC patients in Clare look set to face even longer waiting times following another series of elective cancellations, which has prompted stinging criticism from Deputy Violet Anne-Wynne, writes Dan Danaher. The number of patients on public in-patient waiting lists in the Mid-West has increased from 4,798 in January 2020 to 6,569 in May 2021. There has also been a worrying rise in the number of outpatients waiting to be treated, which is up from 47,134 in January 2020 to 50,363 in May 2021. In a hard-hitting statement issued to The Clare Champion, Deputy Wynne, claimed University Hospital Limerick (UHL)has been the most overcrowded hospital in Ireland every day this year. “It has had the highest overall number of patients waiting for care without beds in each consecutive year since 2017. Despite additional recruitment and over 100 extra beds, it still faces runaway overcrowding. “University Hospital Limerick has been accommodating the highest number of people on trolleys for many months in …

THE UL Hospitals Group has appealed to members of the public to consider all alternative care options rather than visit the extremely busy emergency department at UHL. People with less urgent complaints are advised to expect long delays at the ED today, and should first consider Injury Units, GPs, out-of-hours GP services and pharmacists before attending ED, which continues to experience record presentations. In the 24 hours to 8am on Sunday, 249 people presented at ED. Over the past five days, the average attendance has been 252, with a mid-week high on Wednesday of 274. This is far in excess of the 195 average daily presentation figure in the last full year pre-pandemic (2019). The exceptionally high level of emergency presentations and admissions UHL reflects the experience at hospitals across the country. As part of its escalation plan, additional ward rounds, accelerated discharges and identification of patients for transfer to Model 2 hospitals are all underway. A spokesperson for the …

UL Hospitals Group has today announced the gradual relaxation of a number of Covid-19 restrictions on access to University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL), as local transmission of Covid-19 decreases and the vaccination programme rolls out across the Mid-West. The option of having a nominated partner present for anomaly scans has been reintroduced at the hospital this week, and from next Monday, April 26, fathers/parents of babies in the neonatal unit will be permitted to visit, 4.30pm to 6.30pm, subject to activity in the unit. Weekly risk assessment is ongoing at the hospital with a view to giving a nominated partner 45-minute visiting slots on the hospital’s postnatal wards, M1 and M2, from May 10, 2021 between the hours of 6pm and 8pm daily. Eileen Ronan, UL Hospitals Group’s Director of Midwifery, welcomed the hospital’s first steps in the careful, phased relaxation of the visiting restrictions that have been in force at UMHL for almost the entirety of the pandemic. “No-one …