Call for regional emergency departments to be reopened 

University Hospital Limerick: It has the only emergency department in the midwest region. Picture: Don Moloney

The Regional Health Forum West will discuss overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) next week, with a motion calling for emergency departments in Ennis, Nenagh, and St John's to be reopened.

UHL has the only emergency department (ED) in the midwest region and chronic overcrowding frequently causes delays for patients and is affecting staff morale. Other sites in the same hospital group have injury clinics and medical assessment units but these are not open overnight.

Independent Tipperary councillor Seamus Morris will propose the motion. He said the pressures on the ED made conditions “chaotic”.

“We pack everyone into Limerick and still they will not reverse the reconfiguration policy, the dangerous reconfiguration policy,” he said.

He suggested older people who are not in need of specialist services could be diverted to the smaller hospitals. 

Co Clare Green councillor Liam Grant is also supporting the motion. A former paramedic now working with the fire services, he said overcrowding caused delays across health services.

“It’s mainly older people on the corridors. They would much rather be in Ennis or Nenagh,” he said, adding people want some dignity when they are ill.

“You can have 15 ambulances parked outside,” he said of paramedics who wait for space to be found for patients. 

Both councillors said making people more aware of existing services in Ennis, Nenagh, and St John's would also help. 

A spokesman for UL Hospital Group said it would be “inappropriate” for them to comment on the proposed motion until after it is discussed at the forum.

“In general terms, it should be noted that upgrading of Ennis, Nenagh, and St John’s Hospital is not a matter for UL Hospitals Group, but rather is based on Government policy,” he said.

“The current configuration of acute hospital services in the midwest is set out in ‘Securing the Future of Smaller Hospitals: a Framework for Development’”.

Patient advocates from across Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary — acting as the Midwest Hospital Campaign — asked councillors to highlight the problems.

“A new centre of excellence was promised at University Hospital Limerick but what we got instead was the country’s most consistently overcrowded emergency department,” spokeswoman Noeleen Moran said.

She said they have “a hospital which is understaffed and where healthcare workers are under immense pressure from the beginning to the end of their working day”.