The level of overcrowding at the region’s hospital has eased this afternoon.
51 patients were left waiting for beds at University Hospital Limerick this morning, 32 of those in the emergency Department.
The UL Hospitals Group says there’s been increased numbers of patients attending the Dooradoyle facility over the past number of days.
Up to 201 patients presented over a 24 hour period between Sunday and yesterday, and many of those were acutely unwell, complex cases, which resulted in a higher number of admissions.
This had a knock-on effect in the early part of the week and this morning 51 patients were waiting for beds at University Hospital Limerick, 32 of those in the emergency department. That number has dropped to 16 this afternoon.
The UL Hospitals Group says it regrets that any patient has to face long waits during busy periods and insists that a number of measures are being taken to relieve pressure on the ED.
A bid to build an additional 96 bed block on the UHL site has been submitted to the Department of Health with approval granted for funding of the design stage, while plans to open a 17-bed short stay unit for medical patients in the old ED are progressing.
Full Statement From UL Hospitals Group
The ED in University Hospital Limerick is the busiest in the country with over 64,000 attendances in 2016. The numbers presenting continues to increase year-on-year and of those presenting, the proportion requiring admission, including many frail elderly patients, has also increased.
Traditionally, average attendances at the ED have been approximately 150 over a 24-hour period from Mon – Fri and 120 per 24 hours at weekends.
In recent days activity has been high with 156 attendances in the 24 hours up to midnight on Sunday, August 6th and 142 attendances in the 24 hours up to midnight on Monday, August 7th and 201 on August the 8th.
Significant numbers of patients presenting over the weekend were acutely unwell, complex cases resulting in a higher number of admissions and this had a knock-on effect in the early part of the week.
In relation to your query, there were 51 patients in total in the ED at 8am this morning, Wednesday the 9th of August, 32 were admitted patients waiting for a bed. The situation continues to be managed by staff at UHL and as of 2pm today, the 9th of august, there were 16 admitted patients waiting for beds in the ED.
This is the figure that is published three times daily by the HSE on TrolleyGAR. This number typically reduces over the course of the day as patients are discharged or transferred. Also in the department at the time were non-admitted patients waiting to be assessed or treated, waiting for diagnostics tests or waiting to be discharged home etc. Both admitted and non-admitted groups may include ambulatory patients who do not require a trolley.
It should be noted that the new ED has designated spaces for 49 patients and that admitted patients waiting for a bed are often in single rooms or designated bays.
UL Hospitals Group regrets that any patient has to face long waits in our ED during busy periods and a number of measures are taken to relieve pressure on the ED in line with our escalation plan.
Among the measures taken to relieve pressure on the ED are: the transfer of suitable patients from UHL to Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, St John’s Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital; the transfer of appropriate patients to community care settings; working closely with Community Intervention Teams to provide antibiotics and other basic care in a patient’s home or care facility; communication with GPs to ensure patients are referred to ED only where appropriate; extra ward rounds; and as a last resort, extra beds are put on wards.
UHL has 400 inpatient beds and this is recognised as not being sufficient for the needs of the MidWest Region. A bid to build an additional 96 bed block on the UHL site has been submitted to the Department of Health and approval has been granted for funding of the design stage of the build.
Plans to open a 17-bed short stay unit for medical patients in the old ED are well advanced and it is expected the unit will open in the near future.
