Limerick Hospital needs double amount of A&E consultants, says Donnelly 

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said home care supports was an important part of dealing with the ongoing crisis at UHL. File picture: Dan Linehan

University Hospital Limerick probably needs to double the number of Emergency Department consultants to help address its overcrowding crisis, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has told the Irish Examiner.

“They don’t have sufficient resources within the emergency department. It’s a relatively new ED but they don’t have sufficient staff. They have eight emergency medicine consultants, they should probably have about twice that. Covid has taken over a very substantial area of the new department so areas within the ED that would normally be used to treat patients have had to be set aside,” he said.