A SOURCE inside the chronically overcrowded University Hospital Limerick today (Monday) summed up the chaotic scenes that have become commonplace inside Limerick’s embattled hospital: “There is no dignity here, that was lost a long time ago.”
Videos shared with this journalist showed patients on trolleys crammed up against one another on corridors outside entrance zones to the ED and inside the ED at UHL today.
The footage also shows overworked and exhausted doctors, nurses, and relatives attempting to keep patients calm in the midst of the chaotic scenes around them.
This comes as the overstretched Dooradoyle hospital had 130 patients waiting on trolleys this morning, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, a new record at UHL.
“It looks like a war zone at the moment, you would be forgiven for thinking that the video is of a hospital in Gaza, there are so many patients lying on trolleys in the main corridor,” said a hospital source.
“There’s no place for the patients to go, no more rooms, no more wards, so they are being piled up on top of one another in the corridors.
“This is the worst it has been, ever, and we keep saying that, year on year, but it keeps getting worse,” the source added.
“There a lot of problems with trolleys in corridors, it slows down the system, patients are uncomfortable, and staff bringing in new patients have to move trolleys out of the way and squeeze their way through to get to the ED.
“There is no dignity here, that was lost a long time ago,” they said.
Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan said the record-breaking trolley numbers in Limerick called for the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, to resign over the ongoing trolley crisis.
Deputy Quinlivan, who has been a consistently loud voice on patient overcrowding at UHL, said it was “a damning indictment of the Government’s health policies”.
“For perspective, that’s almost the same number of people packed into UHL on trolleys as there are beds in Nenagh, Croom, and Ennis hospitals combined. It’s absolutely scandalous,” said the Limerick TD.
“We literally have three extra hospitals on trolleys in UHL, but without the staff or resources to mind and care for the patients.
“These aren’t just statistics, these are real people in need of urgent medical care.
“The staff are at a breaking point and this is incredibly unfair to expect them to deliver care in such overcrowded situations.
“Today we hit a new embarrassing milestone.
“There have been 1,632 people treated on trolleys in UHL so far this October. In all of October 2022 there were 1,268 people treated in these types of conditions. It is beyond doubt that this Minister has failed to get to grips with this crisis,” Deputy Quinlivan concluded.
