THE CARDIOLOGY Day Unit at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), much like similar units nationally, should have its opening hours extended from five to seven days to meet current patient demands, the hospital and the HSE has acknowledged.
However, despite this, UHL’s cardiac STEMI centre, which treats patients arriving at the hospital 24/7, 365 days a year for the most severe type of heart attacks, is among the two best performing STEMI units nationally, according to a 2021 national heart attack audit, published in 2023.
While UHL’s STEMI unit exceeded the national target of 90 per cent for all of its STEMI patients receiving timely treatment (within 120 minutes), the hospital’s cardiology day ward and day cardiac diagnostics department remained empty and idle at weekends.
The hospital, run by UL Hospitals Group (ULHG), continues to suffer persistent patient overcrowding, during which some patients wait for days on trolleys in corridors. The group has apologised on numerous occasions for overcrowding conditions in the hospital and regularly advise the public to avoid the routinely cramped emergency department unless in an emergency situation.
“In broad terms, it has been acknowledged that demands for health services are now over seven days and that the health service must look at ways of adapting to meet those needs,” the ULHG told the Limerick Post when asked about the five-day cardiology day unit.
“The HSE has been actively considering what provision of a seven-day service will require across the health system, and tangible progress has been made over the past year, most notably in the form of the new public-only consultant contract POCC23,” it said.
The Limerick Post asked ULHG how many consultant cardiologists were working at UHL and how many of these consultants were physically onsite on weekdays and at weekends, and put it to the group that it was understood that cardiac diagnostics were routinely unavailable at weekends.
The Limerick Post also enquired why the day unit was closed at weekends and if it had adequate staffing.
ULHG replied that there were “eight cardiology consultants currently employed at UHL” but it did not elaborate on how many physically work onsite on weekdays and on weekends.
“Consultants are onsite to meet scheduled service needs, with a consultant on-call 24/7 for the STEMI service,” a statement said.
“University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is one of five designated national primary PCI Centres (percutaneous coronary intervention), and provides STEMI services on a 24/7, 365-day basis. The cardiology department at UHL provides a scheduled diagnostic service, Monday to Friday, alongside the 24/7 STEMI service.
“The cardiology day ward is a day ward, so is closed at the weekend. The cardiology diagnostic unit is not staffed at the weekend unless for urgent doctor-delivered diagnostics, as is the practise in all of the national STEMI centres nationally.”
It said the hospital’s cardiology department is “adequately staffed, with nursing staff, cardiac physiologists, radiographers, consultants and NCHDs” and that there was “a structured consultant on-call service for cardiology at UHL”.
“In addition to being the STEMI 24/7 point of contact, on-call cardiology consultants will be present on site at weekends, rounding on wards and reviewing patients to ensure all care needs are met.”
The ULHG cardiology service urged the public “not to hesitate in calling 112/999, at any time, day or night, if they suspect they are having a heart attack”.
According to the latest data published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund for February 2024, there were 1,940 patients on UHL’s outpatient cardiology waiting list, compared to 2,709 at Cork University Hospital (CUH) and 1083 at University Hospital Kerry.
There were 180 patients on UHL’s inpatient cardiology waiting list, compared to 92 at CUH.
