The number of people waiting more than 12 hours at the Emergency Department at the region’s main hospital has jumped by over 70% in the space of 8 years.
New figures show that between 2013 and 2021, University Hospital Limerick saw an increase of more than 4,600 in the number of patients waiting more than half a day for a bed.
It comes as 86 people are waiting for a bed at the Dooradoyle facility as of 8am this morning.
In 2013, 4,066 patients waited more than 12 hours in the A&E at University Hospital Limerick.
This increased by nearly 73% to 8,720 patients in 2021.
The two years of the pandemic saw the largest increase in wait times for patients at the Dooradoyle facility, with nearly 16,000 people left longer than 12 hours in the ED.
This follow’s on from last week’s HIQA Patient Survey findings which found that 75% of people surveyed said they waited longer than the six-hour HSE target waiting time, while 28% waited more than 24 hours for a bed.
This is despite 98 additional beds coming on stream at the hospital, as well as 10 additional critical care beds in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last year, UHL recorded over 76,000 attendances at their emergency department, the second highest in the country.
However, in comparison to the country’s other model four hospitals, UHL has the second lowest number of inpatient beds – with a capacity of 530 in 2021 and has the lowest number of beds when benchmarked per head of the population.
In response to a Parliamentary Question submitted by Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan, Chief Executive Officer of the UL Hospital’s Group, Colette Cowan, acknowledges that admissions through the ED at UHL account for 83% of inpatient bed delays.
The UL Hospitals Group say that they regret that many patients have experienced lengthy delays and insist these are not the circumstances within which they wish to provide care.
It comes as the MidWest Hospital Group is to hold a public protest this weekend in Ennis to highlight the chronic level of overcrowding at the region’s main hospital and to issue renewed calls for the Emergency Department in Ennis to be reopened.
