Health watchdog review on emergency services in Mid-West now with health minister
UHL offers the only emergency department for a catchment of about 400,000 people. Picture: Brendan Gleeson
An interim report on a Hiqa review of emergency services in the Mid-West is now with the health minister, with the final report expected in May.
Services across Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary have been under huge pressure this winter between the flu and the impact of Storm Éowyn locally.
This has been compounded by a mismatch between high patient numbers and bed numbers.
On Thursday, there were 90 patients on trolleys unable to get a bed at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), and 10 at Ennis Hospital, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
Health watchdog Hiqa was asked by former health minister Stephen Donnelly to examine whether a second emergency department was needed in the area.
UHL offers the only emergency department for a catchment of about 400,000 people. It is the only emergency department in Ireland with such a large population depending solely on it.
A Hiqa spokeswoman said a preliminary briefing was provided to the health minister last month as required by the terms of reference.
A spokeswoman for health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill confirmed the briefing was submitted to the Department of Health on February 28 and received by the minister this week. She is now reviewing this with department officials.
“The interim briefing provides a progress update on the various workstreams of the ongoing work programme,” the spokeswoman said.
“The minister has no objection to the interim briefing being published in the normal way.”
The final report had been expected over the summer, but she said this is now expected by the end of May.
“This final report will contain advice for the minister, informed by the evidence compiled across the various workstreams, to support decision-making around the design and delivery of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the Mid-West region,” she said.
Patient advocates with the Midwest Hospital Campaign and others have called for a second emergency department as a matter of urgency.
The focus on overcrowding and gaps in services was accelerated last year following tragedies at UHL.
The inquest into the death of teenager Aoife Johnston heard the emergency department was so overcrowded when she was a patient there in 2022 that it was “a death trap”, among other graphic descriptions.
Anne Marie Abbott, whose father Martin died in the emergency department in 2019, said after his inquest: “For him to have to die with no dignity is something that I don't know if I'll ever get over."
