UNIVERSITY Hospital Limerick (UHL) was once again the most overcrowded hospital in Ireland throughout last month, according to figures published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
Figures from the nurses organisation reported 1,666 patients waiting on trolleys and in wards for an in-hospital bed at the chronically overcrowded Limerick hospital across the month of June.
In context, this figure marks a 358 per cent increase in patients waiting on trolleys at UHL compared to this time 10 years ago in 2014 (363 patients), and a 700 per cent increase on the figure in 2009 (208), when emergency departments in St John’s, Ennis, and Nenagh hospitals were closed and reconfigured to the Dooradoyle campus.
However, this past month marked the second consecutive June in which trolley figures at UHL declined, following on from 1,689 in June 2023, and 1,829 in June 2022.
The month also saw UHL break its 103-day streak as the country’s most overcrowded hospital, according to the figures tallied on weekday mornings only by INMO.
This was the hospital’s second time in a year to hit such a milestone, having previously ended a 158-day overcrowding streak, according to INMO figures, in January.
Following the INMO figures, University Hospital Galway was the country’s second most overcrowded in June, with 1,051 patients waiting for in-hospital beds, followed by Cork University Hospital (824).
In response to queries from the Limerick Post on the nursing organisation’s figures, a spokesman for UHL said that the hospital regrets “the impact on and inconvenience to any admitted patient who has experienced long waits for inpatient beds in University Hospital Limerick”.
The hospital accepted that “the current level of inpatient bed capacity remains a challenge in the face of increases in demand for emergency care”.
“During the first quarter of 2024, there were 21,298 presentations to the emergency department at UHL, a 14 per cent increase on the same period last year. Provisional data for Q2 is tracking a similar volume of presentations during the April-June quarterly period,” the spokesman said.
“With this in mind, we welcome all support from national HSE and government in progressing a variety of infrastructural and other developments on the ground here, including the two 96-bed developments for UHL.”
Among the initiatives in the works to help resolve the chronic overcrowding at UHL are the development of two 96-bed blocks on the Dooradoyle campus, the first of which is projected for completion in early 2025. Subject to planning procurement, UHL said, the second block is hoped to be delivered by 2027.
During a visit to UHL in April, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly also announced a number of additional supports to help curb overcrowding at UHL, including the use of a 50-bed Community Nursing Unit in Nenagh as a step-down facility; 20 new step-down and rehab beds to be procured in Clare; 16 new fast-build beds commissioned at UHL, to be delivered by the end of this year; and the extended opening hours of medical assessment units at Nenagh, Ennis, and St John’s hospitals.
UHL is also to be one of two national test sites for an acute virtual ward, described as a “safe and efficient alternative to HSE bedded care” involving the monitoring and treatment of patients in this own homes.
