Hiqa conducts inspection of overcrowded Limerick A&E

The emergency department at University Hospital Limerick is regularly the worst impacted by overcrowding in the country. Picture: David Raleigh

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has carried out an unannounced inspection of the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick amid concerns about persistent overcrowding. 

Hospital management has been engaging with Hiqa in recent months to try and address the overcrowding in the emergency department.

There were 88 people on trolleys waiting for a bed on Tuesday and 91 the day before, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

A spokesperson for Hiqa said “a risk-based inspection” was carried out, and that inspectors “looked specifically at the arrangements that are in place ahead of the bank holiday".

Inspectors will produce and publish a report on their findings, following the first such inspection since before the pandemic. 

Worst overcrowding

Hospital management, patients, staff, and trade unions have all highlighted the high number of patients passing through the emergency department in recent months, which is regularly the worst impacted by overcrowding in the country. 

It’s understood the inspectors remained onsite most of the day in the emergency department. 

Last month, the Irish Examiner reported that hospital management is giving "active consideration" to a proposal to build an elective hospital in Limerick through a partnership with private health provider UPMC.

Professor Brian Lenehan, UL Hospitals Group chief clinical director, said a new hospital could greatly ease overcrowding.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation had made calls in January for Hiqa to go into the under-pressure hospital to see what conditions are like for staff and patients. 

The MidWest hospital campaign has also called for emergency departments in smaller hospitals, in Nenagh and Ennis, to be reopened although consultants have raised concerns there are not enough doctors to do this safely. 

A spokesman for the hospital said the UL Hospitals Group "welcomes" the visit by the HIQA team.

"HIQA inspectors also met with UL Hospitals Group CEO Prof Colette Cowan and members of her Executive Management Team," he said. 

"The Group looks forward to the team’s report, which will provide a valuable opportunity to review and reflect on our processes. It would be inappropriate to comment further ahead of the publication of the report."

Ahead of the double bank holiday, the HSE chief operations officer Anne O'Connor called on people in need of healthcare to consider local injury units, GP and out-of-hours services, or pharmacies before going to busy hospital emergency departments.