Over 200 patients have died in the Emergency Department of University Hospital Limerick over the last five years.
New HSE figures show the number of deaths recorded in UHL’s ED during this period was 20% above that of any other hospital on the western seaboard.
239 patients died at University Hospital Limerick’s Emergency Department since 2019.
Its 22% higher than the 195 patients who died in the Emergency Department of University Hospital Galway over the same period, 60% higher than the 150 deaths recorded at University Hospital Sligo’s ED, more than three times the total at Portincula and more than double the deaths in EDs at Mayo University Hospital and at Letterkenny University Hospital.
The figures were provided by UL Hospitals Group CEO Colette Cowan in response to Kilkee Fianna Fáil Councillor Cillian Murphy’s query at the latest HSE Regional Health Forum West meeting on the number of patients who died on trolleys in the Emergency Department of University Hospital Limerick over the past five years.
According to the UL Hospitals Group , in almost all cases, deaths in the ED occur in single rooms, cubicles and clinical decision units.
In 2019, 58 patients passed away in UHL’s Emergency Department, by last year this fell to 41 deaths , which was 6 fewer than the 47 deaths recorded at University Hospital Galway.
Since 2020, one patient in every 1,370 to attend UHL’s Emergency Department has died, while at University Hospital Galway the equivalent is one patient for every 1,625 patients attending its emergency department.
Since the beginning of the year, over 30,000 patients have attended the ED at Dooradoyle, 25% of these patients (7,657) came from Clare, 58% from Limerick, 11% from Tipperary and 6% from other counties.
