Hiqa review of emergency services pushed out until September

Hiqa says it is waiting for the ESRI to finish an analysis of emergency care demand up to 2030 by region

The review will advise the health minister on whether a second emergency department is needed to support University Hospital Limerick. Picture: Dan Linehan

It will be at least September before a Hiqa review of emergency services in Limerick, Clare, and north Tipperary will finish, leaving little time for action before winter illnesses hit.

There was frustration locally when a May deadline came and went, but that has now been pushed out even further.

It comes as 15 people waited longer than 24 hours on a trolley for a hospital bed at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) on Friday according to HSE data.

The review will advise the health minister on whether a second emergency department (ED) is needed to support UHL. 

It is the only ED for more than 400,000 people.

Hiqa, the healthcare regulator, said it is waiting for the ESRI to finish an analysis of emergency care demand up to 2030 by region.

This will feed into Hiqa’s advice for health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

However, a Hiqa spokesman said it does not expect this ESRI work to be completed “until later in the summer”.

As a result, he said: “The revised timeline for completion of the Hiqa final report will therefore be September 2025, contingent on the completion of the ESRI reports within the expected timeframe.” 

This is sure to cause concern across the Midwest with 102 patients unable to find a bed at UHL on Friday, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

Another four people were on trolleys in Ennis hospital, which does not have an ED.

The HSE counts trolleys and beds differently to the union. 

However, its chart shows 59 patients without a bed on Friday.

When this review was announced in May last year, hopes were expressed locally that a rapid-build approach could see a new ED within two years.

Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice, Oireachtas health committee chairperson, has raised the delays with the health minister.

She told him, in response to a parliamentary query, the revised timeline was shared with her on May 28.

This review will provide advice to me, as minister for health, to inform decision-making around the design and delivery of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the Mid West.

Ms Carroll MacNeill described the ESRI findings as “critical” to the Hiqa review.

She also pledged: “The final report will be published".

The review was commissioned in the wake of public outrage at tragedies in the overcrowded ED.

These included the deaths of Aoife Johnston, aged 16, in December 2022, Martin Abbott, aged 65, in 2019, and Eve Cleary, aged 21, also in 2019.

A new 96-bed block is expected to be “fully operational by September 2025” the CEO for Mid West Acute and Older People Services Ian Carter told Independent Cllr Seamus Morris at the recent Regional Health Forum West.

He said recruitment is on track with campaigns running locally and internationally.

The ED also hosts a 24-hour crisis liaison service run by the Mid West Mental Health Services. 

Last year, it saw 2,525 patients, Cllr Joe Ryan was told at the same meeting.

Despite frustrations, Hiqa said work on the review has “progressed very well”.

It has inspected UHL and its sister hospitals and held a public consultation which received 1,121 submissions.

Hiqa is before the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday.