Health service braced for more record overcrowding as UHL to divert patients to Ennis
University Hospital Limerick (UHL) today launches a pilot project aimed at easing the pressure, with Ennis Hospital doctors and paramedics assessing emergency call patients there to judge whether they then need to go to Limerick or not. Picture Dan Linehan
Some 260 people were waiting for a bed in hospitals across the country on Sunday — with 139 people waiting for more than nine hours — as hospital staff and administrators alike brace themselves for potentially another record week of overcrowding.
Acting HSE chief executive Stephen Mulvaney warned in recent days that the precarious situation could get worse before it gets better, with a further 611 in hospital at the weekend with Covid-19.
