Simon Harris: 'Serious issues' in how University Hospital Limerick is run

The Taoiseach also said he understood UHL had one of the lowest uptakes of the new hospital consultant contract

Taoiseach Simon Harris said: 'I do fully accept there’s an urgent need to inject more capacity into the health services in the Mid-West.'

Taoiseach Simon Harris has said there are “serious issues” in how University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is run.

The Taoiseach told the Dáil that there has been a significant increase in staffing levels at UHL in recent years, but this has not translated to reduced overcrowding.

“I do think by any objective standards, the level of additional staff in UHL, relative even to other hospitals, has been significant,” Mr Harris said.

“That does lead me to raise two other issues… One is how the hospital actually operates and I think there are serious issues in relation to that and I think that’s why we’re sending a support team in.” 

The second issue raised by Mr Harris was that he understood UHL had one of the lowest uptakes of the new hospital consultant contract.

“I think the consultant contract has made a real difference in terms of separating public and private and I think it is disappointing where you see some hospitals with a particularly low uptake,” Mr Harris said.

Mr Harris was responding to Social Democrats TD Roisin Shortall, who called on the Government to examine buying the Barringtons Hospital in Limerick to ease pressure on UHL.

Ms Shortall said that the hospital, which has gone on sale for €12.5m, presented a “unique opportunity” for the Government to address ongoing issues at UHL.

In response, the Taoiseach said that he was not aware of the hospital being sold and that he would engage with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly on the matter.

“I do fully accept there’s an urgent need to inject more capacity into the health services in the Mid-West. I will certainly talk to the Minister of Health in relation to [Barringtons Hospital] and see what his view and the view of the HSE is in relation to that,” he said.

Mr Harris said that work has since commenced on a further 71 acute beds at UHL, alongside preparations to build a second 96-bed block.

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Ms Shortall also raised the recently completed inquest of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston, who died at the UHL emergency department of meningitis-related sepsis on December 19, 2022.

Last week, the inquest into her death returned a verdict of medical misadventure.

The Social Democrats TD said that the inquest was “horrific” and that UHL was “consistently” the most overcrowded hospital in the country.

“It is overcrowded all of the time,” Ms Shortall said, adding that Mr Donnelly has acknowledged this overcrowding has led to the hospital being unsafe.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that UHL is a “hospital in a constant state of crisis” and that people being stuck on trollies has become a “year-round emergency”.