Tag Archives: UL Hospitals Group

UL Hospitals Group has reminded the public of the Mid-West that the ban on visiting at its six hospital sites remains in place, to help protect the safety of our staff and patients during the ongoing Covid-19 public health emergency. The visiting ban introduced in early March at Ennis Hospital, University Hospital Limerick, University Maternity Hospital Limerick, St John’s Hospital, Nenagh Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital is unaffected by the activation this week of Phase 1 in the five-phase reopening Ireland’s society and economy. “UL Hospitals Group welcomes the beginning of emergence from the restrictions of the past two months. We regret the distress or inconvenience our visiting ban causes for patients and their loved ones, but it is necessary to keep the ban in place while the risk of a second wave of Covid-19 remains present. The reasons for limiting movement within our hospitals remain as urgent as they were when the visiting ban was introduced in early March …

  Plans are well underway for the development of a large Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) on the floor of the main gymnasium in the University of Limerick’s Sports Arena. It is expected that this temporary facility will be kitted out to accommodate between 120 and 164 patients, depending on staffing, on the basis of a Health Service Executive template in line with a similar one planned for City West in Dublin. The UL Hospitals’ Group estimates it will cost approximately €560,000 for design and build, including mechanical and electrical works, which does not include equipping and staffing costs. This is a joint initiative between the University of Limerick and UL Hospitals’ Group, who are working together to ensure that work will get underway with a week. Once work gets underway it is envisaged that this new facility will be built in four weeks. The HSE has issued an open invitation for all qualified health professionals to make themselves available as …

A collaboration between University of Limerick and UL Hospitals Group has seen the design and capacity created to manufacture 100,000 face visors for HSE front-line staff. The Rapid Innovation Unit at UL, an SFI Confirm Centre funded 3D printing activity that works in collaboration with University Hospital Limerick, mobilised a team to innovate immediate solutions in response to the COVID 19 crisis. The unit has previous experience in rapid design and 3D printing of medical devices in response to clinical requests. Following a request from Professor Paul Burke, Chief Academic Officer at UL Hospitals Group and Vice Dean of Health Sciences at UL, academics and clinicians at the Rapid Innovation Unit at UL worked to design and manufacture novel solutions where doctors had identified potential shortages of equipment should COVID-19 cases surge. In less than two weeks, the team designed solutions to three critical clinical challenges facing clinicians due to the pandemic. These include capacity to manufacture 100,000 face visors …

 UL Hospitals Group is extending until March 29 the visiting ban in place across all their hospital sites, in line with the Government decision to close all schools, colleges and childcare facilities. “We regret that so many people have been unable to visit their loved ones in hospital, and we acknowledge the impact of loneliness and isolation on people in our care at this time, particularly elderly people. “We have drop-off & collection services available to help people get important personal items to and from their relatives in hospital. Security staff at University Hospital Limerick and reception staff at Croom, Nenagh, Ennis, and St John’s Hospitals will be happy to assist with queries about this service,” a spokesperson for UL Hospitals Group said. The only exceptions to the visitor ban are as follows (with a strict limit of one visitor per patient): partners of women attending University Maternity Hospital Limerick parents visiting children in hospital people visiting patients at end-of-life …

THE Healthy Harmony Choir was formed by a group of medical practitioners at Ennis Hospital as a way to unwind and de-stress after a busy day’s work and now two years on, the 30-strong group are singing its praises in terms of its impact on their well-being. Brenda Bleach, a registered advanced nurse practitioner at Ennis Hospital, is one of the choir members and has been involved with the choir since it began. She explained how it got off the ground and why it has become such a popular outlet for staff across the entire UL Hospitals Group. “We started off as staff from Ennis Hospital and we are two years old now. The first year one of the nurses was interested in singing and always wanted a choir, so I ran it by health and wellbeing and asked if it was something we could look at. We started the choir and we didn’t initially have funding. We had paid …

  NEW measures are needed to attract more consultants and nurses in acute hospitals to reduce the high numbers of patients on in-patient and out-patient appointments in the Mid-West. That’s according to former HSE West Forum chairman, Councillor Tom McNamara, who described the latest figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund for the Mid-West as “totally unacceptable”. With an estimated 30% of consultant posts in the UL Hospitals’ Group vacant, Councillor McNamara claimed there aren’t enough medical staff to open a second operating theatre at weekends. The Kilmaley Councillor called on Health Minister Simon Harris to introduce a new incentive to defray the cost of training for new nurses on the basis they commit to working for at least three years in the public health service to address the nursing shortage. According to figures released by the National Purchase Treatment Fund (NPTF),  the total number of in-patients waiting for treatment in the UL Hospitals’ Group increased from 5,533 last January …

THE Mayor of Clare has expressed fears that Mid-West outpatient and in-patient waiting lists will increase even further, as a result of the recent overcrowding in local acute hospitals. The UL Hospitals Group has been forced to cancel surgery at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) as a short-term measure to free up beds to deal with overcrowding in the emergency department (ED). Councillor Tom McNamara believes out-patient and in-patient waiting lists will “get worse before they get better”, following the recent widescale cancellations of surgical procedures. “We are talking about the need to tackle waiting lists but nothing is happening. We have become desensitised to seeing thousands of patients on waiting lists. It is unacceptable to have more than 32,000 patients on a waiting list in the Mid-West,” he said. Councillor McNamara has called on the HSE to make people aware of the criteria of the Cross Border Initiative, as a means of tackling large in-patient and out-patient lists in the …

Strict visitor restrictions are in place at University Hospital Limerick in light of the continuing outbreak of measles in the Limerick City area. Restrictions had already been in place since late December following an increase in seasonal influenza. However, the restrictions will remain enforced as a precaution in view of the ongoing outbreak of measles in the Limerick City area. There are currently a small number of patients with measles in isolation at UHL and the hospital is taking all necessary precautions to contain the illness. UL Hospitals Group is working closely with public health and community colleagues on the Outbreak Control Team set up to manage this outbreak. Until further notice, it is necessary to restrict visitors to one person per patient only and to remind members of the public that visiting hours are from 2pm to 4pm and from 6pm to 9pm only and are to be strictly adhered to. This applies to adult and paediatric patients alike …