HEALTH Minister Stephen Donnelly told an Oireachtas committee that he is “openly acknowledging the under capacity” of the emergency department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick and the need for a second ED for the people of the Mid West.
The Minister was being quizzed on Mid West health matters at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Health.
Minister Donnelly informed the meeting that he sought a report from health watchdog HIQA into whether the second facility is required and where it should be located.
Answering members’ questions, he said that work in the last year at UHL on brining down numbers of admitted patients on trolleys in the ED was “going in the right direction”, but in recent months this was not the case and so HIQA was called in.
HIQA previously said that the “structure of Ennis (hospital) could not support an ED,” the Minister told the committee. He outlined new bed allocations and investments already announced, which the Minister said were “the equivalent of a new Model 4 and Model 3 hospital for the region”.
Addressing questions from Limerick Senator Maria Byrne, who asked if the Ireland would be following the US model of having consultants on site 24/7, Minister Donnelly said that new contracts already negotiated with the consultants will see the on-site rostering time for those senior clinicians doubled.
He said the move “is getting a lot of attention from people applying for posts”, including “Irish consultants who went to work abroad and are coming home”.
Minister Donnelly also confirmed that there are 42 new beds on the way for St John’s Hospital in Limerick City, with 15 already delivered.
In relation to cancer services, he told the health committee that management accommodation in oncology unit is being moved to another part of the hospital with the space being given over to more clinical beds.
Independent TD Violet Anne-Wynne commented on the fact that escalation protocol at UHL “was triggered every single day in 2023”, asking if trolley numbers at the regularly overcrowded hospital were “going in the right direction”.
