THE DÁIL has unanimously passed a motion a motion calling for a second Model 3 hospital in the Mid West.
The motion – tabled by Sinn Féin – comes in the wake of the report into the death of Aoife Johnston, which concluded that the tragedy which claimed the life of the Shannon teen in 2022 at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) “was almost certainly avoidable”.
Sinn Féin also called for fast-tracking of additional bed capacity for UHL.
Limerick Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan warned that “2024 will be the worst year ever for the number of people on trolleys”, claiming that “when Fine Gael came to power in 2011, some 3,600 people spent time on trolleys at UHL”.
“Last year, 21,409 people spent time on trolleys in UHL. The three most recent Ministers for Health, Deputies Varadkar, Harris, and Donnelly, have not made any impact as the situation worsens weekly. They have failed the people of Limerick and the Mid West.”
The Clarke report – collated by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke into the death of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston – notes in relation to the death of Ms Johnson that all the evidence points to the fact that a significant contributing factor to the difficulties encountered in UHL over the weekend of December 17 and 18, 2002, was the severely overcrowded nature of the emergency department.
Speaking in the Dáil, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the government is working on providing more than double the number of beds needed, adding that “there is no doubt but that for too many years, the Mid West has had too few hospital beds.
“Projects that are currently live and under construction at UHL will add another 208 hospital beds. In addition to all of this, as part of the new National Beds Plan launched early this year, I committed another 84 new beds.
“Deputy Maurice Quinlivan referenced a report that said that UHL needed an extra 250 beds – we’re adding 410,” the Health Minister said.
