Sinn Féin has recommended making Ennis, Nenagh and St.John’s as 24/7 Urgent Care Centres in a new strategy that aims to overhaul healthcare in the region.
Simply entitled ‘Sinn Féin’s Plan To Fix MidWest Health Services’, the main opposition party has outlined ten key measures for Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary.
The plan published today and launched by Sinn Féin’s Health Spokesperson Deputy David Cullinane and Mayor of Limerick candidate Deputy Maurice Quinlivan recommends 288 acute inpatient beds for University Hospital Limerick.
It also pledges to deliver an elective only hospital for the region along with the provision of 24-hour urgent care at Ennis, Nenagh, and St John’s hospitals.
The Urgent Care facilities would essentially cater for a defined list of illnesses and injuries that are non-life threatening but still require prompt treatment and Sinn Féin says it would invest in the National Ambulance Service to facilitate this.
Although the plan stops short of a commitment to opening a second emergency department in the MidWest, it has listed a review to establish the need for further ED capacity in the region as a priority.
The strategy also promises to end the HSE recruitment embargo and to ensure the full implementation of the recommendations of the coroner’s court in inquests into deaths at UHL emergency department.
Sinn Féin is also pledging to deliver 1,200 community beds across Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary and to deliver a pharmacy first minor ailments scheme in conjunction with bolstering out of hours GP services, while also creating between 350 and 450 new GP training positions.
Legislation to mandate safe staffing levels in every hospital is also promised along with increasing the number of undergraduate, postgraduate and advanced specialist practice training places to 1,200.
