Concern is growing among the MidWest Hospital Campaigns Group that University Hospital Limerick could be in store for its greatest capacity crisis yet in the coming months.
It comes as the UL Hospitals Group is being called upon to produce an urgent Winter plan ahead of an expected seasonal surge in presentations.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation recorded 109 patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick during morning rounds on Monday alone.
The figure is more than double the number of people documented without a bed at the regions main hospital by the INMO at the same juncture of 2022 and 2021.
However this is disputed by the UL Hospitals Group who use the HSE’s alternative Trolley GAR database , which recorded a total of 75 patients on Monday.
In a statement to Clare FM , the UL Hospitals Group say this total consists of 25 patients in the Emergency Department, 18 in the Acute Medical Unit and 32 on trolleys in inpatient wards.
However the UL Hospitals Group has stated that the level of overcrowding is far in excess of where they want it to be and that an escalation plan is in place to maximise patient flow and create additional capacity.
Measures taken on a daily basis, include opening surge beds at all sites including Ennis, Nenagh and St.Johns as well as additional ward rounds aiming to expedite patient discharge.
University Hospital Limerick’s Emergency Department has already seen over 6,000 patients leave without receiving treatment so far this year.
With fears now growing over an expected record number of presentations ahead of the impending Winter surge, the HSE is set to introduce its new Urgent and Emergency Operational Care Plan.
The plan has set out key targets for the region with the overall goal of reducing patient experience times by focusing on hospital avoidance.
Among the goals of the plan is to have no patient over the age of 75 waiting more than 24 hours for a trolley in ED and reducing the monthly trolley count to below 320.
However a Clare based member of the MidWest Hospital Campaign believes there is only solution to overcrowding in the region.
Clare’s Community Healthcare Organisation area which includes Limerick and North Tipperary is the only CHO in the country without a supporting model three facility.
Marie McMahon from Ennistymon whose husband passed away on a trolley at UHL in 2018 says that one Emergency Department for a population of 400,000 people simply is not enough.
You can listen to the full interview below.
