HSE to open 40 extra beds to cope with A&E overcrowding

An additional 40 acute beds have been allocated to address overcrowding at one of the country’s busiest & emergency departments.

In recent weeks, doctors at the & Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick have struggled to cope with the numbers presenting at the emergency unit.

With the closure of the 24-hour emergency departments& at Ennis and Nenagh hospitals, all emergency patients from the Mid-west now attend the unit& in Limerick.

Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation confirm the hospital had the worst case of overcrowding across the hospital system on Monday, with 26 patients on trolleys & and 20 patients above the stated complement in the hospital’s wards.

Speaking to reporters at Ennis General Hospital, where he officially opened a €9m 50-bed wing, Health Minister James Reilly said: “We have identified the fact that there is a capacity issue there.

“We have already opened up 10 beds and another 10 beds over the next couple of weeks, and a further 20 beds to be opened up over the next month, I hope, in another hospital. We are addressing the issue.

“If the special delivery unit [which the department set up to reduce waiting times] has done nothing else, it has at least restored some faith in the system — you make your case and if the case is found to be valid, we act on it.”

He said it would 18 months before a new emergency department & for Limerick was opened.

“For the people who need care in the interim, already there has been an impact with the opening of these beds. I have no hesitation in reassuring people that the services at Limerick Regional will be safe and efficient and look after people as required.”

Assistant general secretary of the Impact trade union, Andy Pike, said yesterday: “It is late in the day, but we welcome that the minister has recognised that there is severe undercapacity of acute beds in the midwest region.”

He said the teamwork report of 2009 identified a shortfall of 170 acute beds in the region and the HSE had reduced capacity since. “The provision of 40 acute beds is welcome. The question remains is it a temporary quick-fix or does it finally deal with the lack of bed capacity?”

Dr Reilly also said no acute hospital will be closed down as part of the forthcoming report into smaller hospitals, which will be published in the coming weeks. “We don’t have the capacity in the system to allow them to close. We have an ageing population, we have a growing population and we have to change the way we deliver care in this country and that is not unique to Ireland.”

He said the report and the establishment of hospital groups “will secure the future of the smaller hospitals because they will see that they have a very definite future”.

He said the latest investment safeguarded the future of the Ennis General Hospital “without a shadow of a doubt. No one would invest €9m, and €20m over five years, in a hospital that didn’t have a future.”