Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL LIMERICK has said elective procedures will resume tomorrow morning after they were postponed earlier this week due to overcrowding.
At a meeting of the hospital’s management team this morning, it was decided that “elective surgical activity across all sites” would resume tomorrow morning. The sites include University Hospital Limerick (UHL), St John’s, Ennis, Nenagh and Croom Orthopaedic Hospitals.
In a statement issued today, the hospital said: “Postponement of scheduled elective activity is a decision of last resort that no hospital manager wishes to make,” adding that it regretted the impact on patients.
It said the hospital would “work to ensure these appointments are rescheduled at the earliest opportunity”.
The hospital had said on Monday that it was”experiencing extremely high demand” and appealed to the public to “consider all care options” before going to the emergency department.
The hospital said that it had been caring for “an exceptionally high number of unwell medical patients” and that the emergency department had seen the highest number of people presenting there since the beginning of the year, with a daily average of 245 patients.
As a result, it said scheduled activity across all its sites was deferred till the following day and that was the case again today, with the exception of time-critical patients, including cancer patients.
The Government has faced repeated criticism for the overcrowding at UHL and beyond from opposition parties in the Dáil this week.
Today, both Labour and Sinn Féin leaders Ivana Bacik and Mary Lou McDonald used their time at Leader’s Questions to demand action on the state of the healthcare system, with particular reference to the Limerick hospital.
Bacik said that in talking to people who have been affected by overcrowding and understaffing, including patients and healthcare workers, the word she repeatedly heard was “chaos”.
She told of one doctor who said he was going to move abroad because of the level of overcrowding in the hospital where he works.
Bacik said the doctor feared that if something went wrong with a patient under his care because his attention was stretched across too many people, he would be blamed.
McDonald, having raised the issue in the Dáil yesterday, told Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney – standing in for the Taoiseach today – that the Government’s attitude was that there was “nothing to see here”.
McDonald described the Government’s position as “delusional”.
Coveney refuted that characterisation of the Government’s position, as did Leo Varadkar in yesterday’s session.
Coveney said that over the last four years there had been progress in addressing both staff shortages and overcrowding across the healthcare sector.
On UHL, Coveney said the Government “is stepping in” and “has invested significantly in University Hospital Limerick and will continue to do so”.
He said staffing at the hospital has grown my over 1000 since the end of 2019 and that the Government would continue to invest “as much as is necessary”.
He said that the hospital’s budget had increased significantly between 2019 and 2023.
“Its budget has grown by 118 million over that period. That’s an increase of 45%, and badly needed, in just four years,” he said.
“So the calls for more investment, more capacity, more staff are being met by government allocation of resources and we will continue to do that to address what is a significant pressure in this hospital.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I just simply ran a cable under the Irish sea to a friend’s in Wales and hooked up to their box with a splitter.
Try a vpn way cheaper
Genius ;)
Lol u live up to ur name cupid!
Simply install AnonymouX and you can change your ip address to a UK one and watch BBC online if you so wish.
Tips and tricks 2015
Just use a proxy/VPN. I use ZenMate from the Chrome Web Store. It’s free and you can change your IP address to one from the UK, US, Germany, Romania or Hong Kong.
Hola is a service that tacks on to your browser and changes you to the US or UK at the touch of a button.
I use hola on the lap top and my iPhone. It’s great for netflix and I’ve never had a problem with it
You just risk someone else looking at dodgy content on your ip address that could land you in trouble. Never heard of Zenmate. Does the same risk apply and does it work on iOS??
You could just not look at ‘dodgy content’. Or if you have to look whatever that is, just do it when you don’t have the vpn turned on and just let Eircom/UPC look at your ‘dodgy content’.
The way Hola works is someone in another country could be looking at all sorts if stuff but yet the cops will knock on your door.
I’ve read my post 3 times now and I still can’t understand how you misunderstood it???
@Darren – re-read Bob’s initial comment, he’s correct in what he’s saying.
Why not just throw a £5 paywall on it for people outside the UK?
RTE could make a buck by doing the same, they’ll probably ruin it though, and get greedy.
They’d actually make a good bit on it, with the positive reaction to the hurling on Sky last year.
I only watch it for the Angelus myself.
Because nobody would pay to watch Fair City…
Fairly Sh!tty :)
And this is why God invented IP proxy services. I can happily watch BBC and US Netflix from the comfort of my sitting room. The world and technology is changing quicker than regulation can keep up!
F*ck the story, isn’t my angel Benedict looking beautiful?
I thought I’d find you letching here…
You can get all the UK channels at filmon.com for free, streaming in real time. Many other country’s channels too, works great in Ireland.
Hola Unblocker is brilliant! I watch BBC, CBS, Hulu with no problems.
+1
Hold works great. Watched the whole world snooker championship with no stoppages
if only there were some way to use a proxy to fool the BBC website into thinking your browser originates in the UK. But as far as I know no such technology exists and we will have to make do with RTE…
No one is saying there’s no way around it now! But obviously it would be far better if you didn’t have to find a back door in the first place.
That said, what on earth does “cross-border access to the content [...but not...] wanting to destroy this principle of territoriality” mean? He didn’t think that might need a little clarification?
Bismarck would be happy
Does anyone care??!!!!
Yes. The hundreds of thousands of us who use Netflix from Ireland, for example.
Yes you pay for a service that shafts you even before you start to watch. European version of netflix is terrible. The American version has way more content. Hence your getting shafted. Get what you can for free. It’s always better when it’s free.
Type stream into Google. Whatever happens after that is up to you
And they wonder why there’s piracy. Take what you can get after all even if your a good law abiding citizen your still going to get shafted all the way to the bank. Thats a fact. So don’t start with the smart comments. Just enjoy life. After all one way or another we’re all getting robbed ripped off and scammed. If you worry you die. If you don’t worry you still die. Enjoy life
Hidninja vpn …problem solved ..
I have iPlayer on my Sky box and I swear, I may have used it once in the past 3 months. You’re not missing too much.
I recently rented a book from the library, The Gym Bible , I was so impressed with it I decided I would buy it online , when I searched for it I discovered that it could be downloaded for free, happy days until it said that content was not available to download outside of America. I did but it in the end online for €20 but if i didnt have to i wouldnt have .
ExPat Shield is brilliant for changing your IP address to a UK one. Works perfectly for BBC or ITV players.
Their blocking UK based vpns now as well.
have your say