During a visit to an embattled University Hospital Limerick (UHL) today, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly slammed the ongoing overcrowding seen at the hospital as “not acceptable.”
In a statement on the trip, the Department of Health said that UHL has “consistently” the “highest number of people waiting on trollies for admittance to a hospital bed in the country.”
“In 2024 to date, 17% of those who waited on trollies did so at UHL, a hospital which has 6% of Emergency Department attendances, and 6% of attendances of those over 75 years,” the statement read.
“In UHL, in 2024, we have seen a 14% (2.4k) increase in the number of people presenting at ED versus the same period in 2023.
“The number of patients on trolleys has increased by 49% (1.6k).
“Of the five hospitals with the highest numbers of patients on trolleys, UHL is the only one showing an increase in trolley numbers for 2024.”
Commenting on the figures, the Fianna Fáil Minister said this situation was “not acceptable.”
“This continued problem is not acceptable to me as Minister, and it most certainly is not acceptable to the people of this region,” Donnelly said.
“In an effort to alleviate the problem I have agreed with the HSE a number of measures which will, I hope, help.”
These measures include, among other things, mandating that “all steps are taken to accelerate the second 96 bed block to be built here at UHL”, with Minister Donnelly adding: “Those works have begun.”
“A further 20 permanent step down transition and rehab beds will be procured in Clare,” he continued.
“16 additional fast build beds are to be commissioned onsite with this capacity to be available in advance of next winter’s surge.”
In addition to these and several other measures, Donnelly said that this would come in addition to a 41% increase in staff at UHL since 2019, and an addition of 108 beds since 2020.
“The budget allocation for this Hospital has increased by 44% since 2019 to €383 million in 2023,” he said.
In its statement, the Department of Health said that so far this year Ireland has seen an 11.5% (37k) increase in the number of people presenting at Emergency Departments (EDs) compared to the same period in 2023 nationally.
“For those aged 75+ patient group the increase is 16% (7,000),” they said.
“However, in spite of this, additional capacity coupled with on-going reforms mean that the number of patients on trollies has fallen by 10.4% (3.3k).”
However, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have said that UHL is still the most severely impacted Irish hospital in the country when it comes to overcrowding