Calls for second emergency department in Mid-West amid ‘chaos’

A leading clinical director believes a second emergency department would be beneficial for the Mid-West region in the wake of claims that University Hospital Limerick is in “chaos”.

There are 36 patients on trolleys in the hospital’s emergency department yesterday — the highest figure in any public acute hospital in the country. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says it has repeatedly raised very serious concerns with local management in respect to patient safety and the impact that working in such an environment is having on nurses.

According to the nursing union’s trolley watch, the number of patients on trolleys at the hospital increased from 19 on Thursday to 36 yesterday — 13 more than Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, the acute hospital with the second highest number of patients on trolleys.