INMO call for 'direct, high-level HSE intervention' as record overcrowding numbers in Limerick

Overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick hit record levels on three occasions in the last six months.

There were 81 admitted patients waiting for a bed in UHL today, a record figure first reached on April 3 and again on July 11 this year.

More than 1,000 patients had to wait on trolleys for a bed in UHL this month, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

It is already the worst September on record, with one week still remaining, the INMO pointed out.

An INMO official said it was a matter of public safety.

“Eighty-one patients on trolleys is what you'd expect after a natural disaster, not on an ordinary Monday,” said the INMO's industrial relations officer for Limerick, Mary Fogarty.

“It's time for direct, high-level HSE intervention. Services should be curtailed immediately to clear this overcrowding,” she said.

At the root of this is understaffing. There are a hundred unfilled nursing posts at the hospital, and the HSE is not allowing management to recruit graduating nurses and midwives. The recruitment ban has to go.

“Our members are looking to winter with a sense of dread. If this what's happening in temperate months, things can only get worse as accidents and illnesses increase in colder weather.”

The INMO has called for a review of the ongoing trolley overcrowding at the hospital.

Responding, UL Hospital Group regretted that admitted patients were waiting a long time in the emergency department for a bed to become available.

“This is not the level of service we or the staff working in UL Hospitals Group wish to provide,” it stated.

A "significant number" of patients needed to be isolated but the hospital did not have adequate isolation facilities and this affected patient flow.

Also, despite the release of national funding to address delayed discharges, patients who no longer required acute care, the number remained above average with 34 delayed discharges across the group.

“All available surge capacity is currently in use and appropriate patients are currently being transferred to Ennis, Nenagh and St John's Hospitals,” the group stated

There are 455 beds at UHL and they are not enough for the needs of the midwest region. Construction has started on a 60-bed hospital block that will open towards the end of next year.

There was no moratorium on nursing recruitment but UL Hospital Group was required to employ within funded vacancies. Over the last five weeks, 68 staff had been recruited and 48 were graduate nurses and midwives.

There were 534 admitted patients waiting for beds in hospitals across the country on Monday, according to the INMO's Trolley Watch.

Cork University Hospital was also badly hit by hospital overcrowding – it had 62 admitted patients on trolleys waiting for a bed.