UHL crisis: Hospital to get new out-patient building to keep patients away from emergency department

HSE regional executive officer Sandra Broderick said new 96-bed block opening next will reduce trolley numbers but warned a 'difficult winter' lies ahead

The proposed out-patient centre will be staffed by consultants and allow patients avoid the busy hospital. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

A new out-patient building will be established at University Hospital Limerick as part of a wider process of reforms, the HSE regional executive officer for the Mid-West has said.

Sandra Broderick also said a new 96-bed block opening next will reduce trolley numbers, albeit only by a small amount, and warned a "difficult winter" lies ahead.

The proposed out-patient centre will be staffed by consultants and allow patients avoid the busy hospital, she told the Irish Examiner.

“We are planning to develop a regional centre for out-patients, so moving more activity out of the hospital and into the community,” she said.

Out-patient appointments include X-rays, eye-care or minor surgery.

“The people of Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary have one access route into services predominantly and that’s into the emergency department or via their GP,” she said.

So I want to create further access routes for people that means they are not coming to the emergency department.

Ms Broderick, in this newly-created role since December, said: “It’s in the pipeline, it’s being developed at the moment.” 

Locals have long criticised a 2009 reconfiguration which saw smaller hospitals downgraded without extra resources for UHL. It has led to regular overcrowding at the hospital. 

Just last month, operations and appointments for many elective patients had to be postponed, with "hundreds" affected, according to Ms Broderick.

'Five-year plan'

She said fully resolving the issues could take "a five-year plan".

Sandra Broderick said ED waiting times have dropped, and delays leading to recovered patients spending longer than necessary in hospital have fallen by 23%.

She highlighted some changes despite a 10% growth this year in emergency patients. Last year, three local injury units saw 46,000 people, and 80,000 went to UHL’s ED.

ED waiting times have dropped, and delays leading to recovered patients spending longer than necessary in hospital have fallen by 23%, she said.

“We have managed to reduce the time people are waiting for scheduled care, from 8.5 months down to 7.2 months,” she said.

However, significant funding increases are needed, she said, pointing to the under-construction block.

“We’ve a really difficult winter ahead of us and 90 beds will reduce trolley numbers by about 10 based on an average length of stay of five days [in beds],” Ms Broderick said.

This indicates, she said, how many more beds are required in order to manage scheduled and unscheduled care demands together.

They have now “secured between revenue and capital nearly €1bn in funding” from the Government.

This will cover a minimum of 50 additional acute beds annually and more nursing homes, among other changes. Some €3m was used to save a voluntary nursing home facing closure, she said.

A higher number of GP trainees will be placed in the region.

One of Ms Broderick's reforms in Tipperary caused great distress — an unopened nursing home in Nenagh was re-purposed for hospital patients’ rehabilitation in a public-private partnership.

“I give my absolute commitment that this is a short-term intervention to help us manage the sheer volume of increased demand for older people for unscheduled care in the interim,” she said.

“Those beds will be utilised. It’s the same patients who will have access to rehabilitation, consultant-led care in those 50 beds.”