Simon Harris: Chaotic Emergency Department had impact on me

Health Minister Simon Harris has described how walking through a chaotic scene of injured and sick patients on trolleys in the Emergency Department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) had “a real impact” on him.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, there were 32 patients on trolleys in the Limerick ED — the highest number recorded in the country — as Mr Harris to witness the extent of the ongoing hospital trolley crisis.

Mr Harris said the scene that met him inside the hospital left him “in no doubt we need the new ED as quickly as possible”.