Over 1,100 submissions made to Hiqa review of emergency services in Mid-West
Some 1,121 submissions were received during a public consultation. Picture: Sasko Lazarov
More than 1,100 submissions were made by the public to the Hiqa review of emergency services in the Mid-West, an interim briefing prepared for the health minister shows.
The watchdog intends to publish its final advice to the minister and outcome from various projects within this review on its website when this work is fully complete, the briefing states.
Hiqa was commissioned under the previous government to carry out a review of urgent and emergency healthcare services across Limerick, Clare, and north Tipperary.
This followed public outrage at tragedies and inquest findings linking deaths to overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) particularly in the emergency department.
The interim briefing, submitted to health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill on February 28 and published on Wednesday on the Department of Health website, shows a high level of public interest in the process.
Some 1,121 submissions were received during a public consultation.
This was followed up by in-person meetings with some people last month.
More meetings were planned for this month.
There are six other parts to the review.
These include making a detailed comparison between the Mid-West and other HSE regions to highlight similarities and differences.
However the briefing notes this may be limited in scope, saying: “The approach to this work stream has been informed by the limitations of the available data, as well as the absence of data for some areas of interest.”
They are also examining capacity across the region.
However, again it is noted that not all the data is yet available.
The plan is Hiqa will rely on data being gathered by the ESRI nationally.
However, the briefing stated: “It was anticipated that the ESRI’s regional projections would be available to inform this programme of work.
“Feedback on the national projections from the Department of Health and HSE, which is not yet complete, is required before the regional capacity projections can be undertaken.”
Hiqa only received draft national capacity projections and regional population projections on February 14.
The team is also looking internationally, to examine how other health services are tackling hospital and ED overcrowding.
This is focused on “selected countries of relevance to the Irish healthcare setting.”
The timeline for completion remains May 2025.
