Irish Examiner View:  Permanent crisis at Limerick hospital

Why is Hiqa bothering to continue with surprise visits when the level of results is uniformly and consistently unsatisfactory?

Patients on trolleys at the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick hospital.

Another week, and another set of damning statistics emerges for patient treatment at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

A Hiqa report identifies one patient who waited on a trolley for 116 hours. A second took more than 85 hours, and the delay for a third was 71 hours. One patient who required an angiogram, a relatively straightforward process, waited for 45 hours. It should normally be carried out within six hours.