We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
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.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
THE IRISH NURSES AND Midwives Organisation (INMO) is calling for the implementation of the Major Emergency Plan at University Hospital Limerick after 47 patients who were admitted in the last 24 to 48 hours were left waiting on trolleys this morning.
The INMO said the plan should have been used by management at the hospital and claimed at least an extra 70 acute beds are needed at the hospital to cope. Though the plan, by definition, is designed to be used in the event of a major emergency, the union said it should be activated once the level of overcrowding at a hospital peaks.
It appealed to Minister for Health Leo Varadkar to take action in respect of the “consistent and deplorable overcrowding” in the hospital’s Emergency Department, pointing out that a €2 million investment could put 30 beds in place, in time for winter pressures.
“There is no doubt that this level of overcrowding is causing poor outcomes for patients and a totally unacceptable work environment for staff,” commented industrial relations officer Mary Fogarty. “An urgent and implementable action plan is required, with robust management of same, if this hospital is to survive the winter without inflicting more harm on patients.”
Earlier today, the INMO also criticised conditions at Mullingar Regional Hospital, claiming nursing staff are working long hours without a break in “an overcrowded and clinically dangerous environment”.
Minister Varadkar said recently that he is aware of the problems in hospital emergency departments and looks at trolley figure three times a day.
“The figures are much worse than this time last year because demand has soared, and he’s concerned that it will get worse this winter, especially if there is an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug or similar,” a spokesperson told TheJournal.ie earlier this month.
He is due to meet with INMO representative closer to Christmas to discuss how best to handle the pressure on resources during that busy time.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I’ll never know how the staff in that A&E department are continuing to cope. I’ve been there several times with family and it’s like the end of the world. Patients deserve better but so do staff. They are heroic in that hospital and are the only reason it hasn’t all fallen completely apart.
I have family that work in that hospital, staff are being demoralised by the poor working conditions.
They really are heroic. I was in hosp a few wks ago. I was in a&e for 36 hrs. I got initial treatment which would have ‘held me over’ for another week or two.
I said at 2am that I was going to head home as there was no sign of a bed on a ward, as I would have some peace and quiet and sleep.
However I badly needed admission, and staff worked tirelessly for about 2 hrs to get me a bed on an acute ward. I can’t thank them enough. Such dedication.
Hopefully Dr James Reilly will suffer a painful head trauma causing him to fall down a flight of stairs onto a rake causing him to spend 11 hours haemorrhaging in a waiting room in his nearest hospital 100 kilometres away before being moved on to a trolley where he can fester for a week before being visited by Leo the dude Varadkar who will offer him some flat 7-Up, which is about all he is capable of contributing to healthcare…..
What more is expected when 3 of the 4 hospitals in the area are downgraded and inadequate facilities remain in the sole ‘centre of excellence’.
Limerick, Clare and north Tipp, all into one acute hospital, what’s that a pop of 400000 or so.
It’s not just limerick that’s affected,every hospital in this country is crumbling under severe pressure,unnecessary pressure if you ask me and again it all falls back on politicans and past and present governments who have made promises and put unqualified people in ministry position who couldn’t even run a tap of water. Shocking !!!
Had to take my 85 year old mother who suffers from dementia to hospital 2 Friday’s ago, she spent 26 hours on a trolley bed with screaming drunks and police officers handcuffing them to beds before eventually being transferred to another hospital….disgraceful to say the least!!!
Exactly the same problem in the Lourdes Hospital in Louth, seems to be a issue across the health service. Feel sorry for the people on the frontline dealing with this sh*t day to day
There is more used trolleys in Limerick hospital then Tescos
How about a fresh approach , fk the bond holders IMF and ECB and sort out our hospitals first before handing out money out
Spent almost 48 hours on a trolley in Limerick this time last year, seems things haven’t improved
It needs a new approach. I agree the A&E never received the promised resources once the other 3 hospitals were downgraded Nenagh Ennis and St. John’s . The nursing staff have to be commended for putting up with these unsafe and unworkable conditions. There should be more cooperation and communication with GPs to be able to admit their patients directly to the hospital without going through A&E especially people with chronic medical conditions. There is a ward called acute medical assessment unit that takes direct admissions ad avoids A&E but not all GPs use this route so everyone ends up in the small accident and emergency unit. Equally there is many a patient in hospital beds for longer then needed that could be managed in the community with the right resources which in turn causes a build up in A&E with acute patients waiting to be admitted. People themselves need to be more responsible attending an accident and emergency department for minor ailments without seeing their GP or out of hours shannondoc first is adding to the long delays. Unfortunately there is a certain amount of people that will ring 999 for an ambulance believing if they attend A&E this way they will be seen straight away. People who abuse this service and A&E even if they have a medical card should be billed I know first hand I am a paramedic working in limerick.
All the managers, should hang their heads in shame, they are the real problem!
The Health Service needs to be privatized, the management and civil servants currently running the show are over paid wastrels who couldn’t organize a r!de in a brothel
This was foreseen and warned about when Ennis & Nenegh A&Es were shut down under the previous Fianna Failed government…. Deputy Doloey et al take a bow… a policy followed on by FGLAB……
i really have to laugh when i hear the regional hospital in limerick called ” University hospital” surely there must be standards and assurance to gain such a title, the university tile was just another tactic by o reilly to cod the people of limerick! the UNIVERSITY hospital is at breaking point, the resources are either out of date or broken and there is no money to replace or repair some of the equipment, the staff are just run ragged as they watch the suits go around the hospital with clip boards ticking questionaires and completing SWOT analysis to add to the fab paper work they are so good at! one of the main problems with our health,education etc is you have management/line managers that dont know the first thing about dealing with the public/dealing with conditions/ children/education but are being highly paid, the people that actually do the work have their hours cut or not replaced. the regional in limerick always had top heavy management and until these suits with the biros are booted out we will always have trolley problems in limerick
never mind all that, we need to be cranking up foreign aid to over €700m next year. Oh and those direct provision centres and lawyers and quangos. I mean they don’t pay for themselves either. Priorities people.
You hit nail on the head about lawyers and quangos
Remember when Fianna Fail shut down all those hospitals like the only one in Co. Clare and told people to go to the ‘new Centres Of Excellence’ like the one in Limerick? Yeah, and then they didn’t put any more money into the hospital which was already overcrowded so now you have like double the amount of people from two counties all going to a single hospital, not to mention an up to two hour travel time to get there for many who live on the West Coast. I remember. At least Fine Gael has stopped talking about ‘Centres Of Excellence’ but they have done nothing to fix the problem. Maybe they should, just an idea, reopen the hospitals that closed so we can have at least one in each county? I mean, having the entire population of two or three counties all being forced to use a single hospital built half a century ago does not seem like the best plan for the future.
have your say