by Bernie English
THE chief executive of University Hospital Limerick has pledged that from this week no more than eight people will have to wait on trolleys in the emergency department.
The promise comes in the wake of a campaign to reopen emergency departments at St John’s, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals.
The Anti Austerity Alliance (AAA) will be asking all Limerick General Election candidates to commit to reversing the cuts to emergency department services at a public meeting in Pery’s Hotel on this Thursday night.
The meeting will be addressed by Marie O’Connor, health journalist and author of the book “Emergency: Irish Hospitals in Chaos”
As part of the campaign, a Facebook page ‘Limerick A&E Trolley Tales’ has been set up, where people are invited to share their stories of emergency derpartment over-crowding, and under-staffing. Leaflets will be distributed to 12,500 homes over the coming weeks.
According to AAA election candidate, Cllr. Cian Prendiville there has been a 26 per cent increase in patients on trolleys in the Limerick emergency department this year alone. And he says that this is the result of cuts and the closure of the emergency departments in Ennis, Nenagh and in St. Johns Hospital.
Meanwhile, UL Hospitals Group chief executive Professor Colette Cowan claims the target of no more than eight patients waiting for admission is achievable as the effects of the measures introduced under UHL’s Winter Resilience Plan start to kick in.
On Monday, the first day of the pledge, there was just one patient waiting for admission on a trolley and on Tuesday that figure had risen to eight.
The numbers waiting on trolleys in the hospital’s emergency department have hit record levels in recent months with more than fifty people in the queue on some days.
Prof Cowan said that the “endgame is that should be no patient waiting for a bed. There will be days when here and there where the numbers may go over but then our focus is to bring it back down”.
