University Hospital Limerick.
THE MEDICAL Board of University Hospital Limerick (UHL) has called for more money and resources to be poured into providing emergency hospital beds in the Mid West, even if that means taking money from other projects nationally.
The Board warned that even with the promised 224 new patient beds, there will still be dangerous overcrowding in the region as demand will still be higher than the number of beds available.
“If necessary, we believe this may require the re-phasing of capital developments elsewhere in the country, until such a time as equity of access to emergency healthcare for all families in Ireland is achieved,” their statement said.
In a hard-hitting statement released this week, the Board, under the chairmanship and deputy chairmanship of Professor Colin Peirce and Dr Joe Devlin, pointed out that the recent HIQA report on emergency care in the Mid West said the region will still have more people in urgent need of in-hospital treatment than there are beds.
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“Immediate delivery of all 224 of these beds would be expected to bring UHL up to parity with current bed numbers in other Model 4 hospitals, relative to demand. However, the timeline for 96 of these beds is now estimated to be 2029, by which time demand for acute capacity will have increased further in line with demographic change,” the statement quotes.
“The Mid West has the lowest number of inpatient beds relative to the number of people who attend the ED (at UHL). It also has the highest number of ED attendances of any Model 4 hospital. This demand-capacity deficit will only be partially addressed by current investment and commitments to increase inpatient beds in the Model 4 and Model 2 hospitals.
“Add to this finding that the current plan does not address the provision of any Model 3 beds in the Mid West whatsoever, and the scale of the deficiency becomes clearer.”
Government direction needs to change
The Board continued that “outside of the Mid West, there are 17 Model 3 hospitals in total across the other health regions. The Mid West currently does not have a single Model 3 hospital bed”.
“In addition, all of these other regions have more Model 4 beds than the Mid West. The direction from government on this critical point needs to urgently change.”
The Board also stoutly defended staff at UHL, saying it wants to hear no more about workers being blamed for the inadequacies of the system.
“We wish to express our solidarity with both patients and staff. On the one hand, our patients endure inequitable access to emergency (unscheduled) and elective (scheduled) care alongside reduced privacy and dignity when compared with patients throughout the rest of Ireland. On the other hand, our staff continue to deliver care to the best of their ability in an inappropriately overcrowded environment,” the Board hit out.
“The HIQA report quotes from the Frank Clarke Report of 2024 into the death of Aoife Johnston, in which he highlighted, ‘the safety risks of this constant cycle of escalation and the use of multiple overflow areas.’
“The HIQA report clearly states that, ‘the overall acuity (level of illness) of patients who attend the ED at UHL was found to be higher than for other EDs around the country’ and ‘the key problem is that there are not enough inpatient beds in the Mid West to meet current demand for those patients requiring admission’.”
‘Patient safety is being compromised’
The Board said the report also identifies that these patients are more ill than the national average and finds no evidence of inappropriate admission to inpatient beds.
As well as deciding on which of the three potential options identified by HIQA to best address the bed shortages (more capacity on UHL grounds, more capacity offsite but near the Dooradoyle hospital, or a new hospital with an ED for the region), “there is also a need for immediate action to reduce patient safety risk,” the Board said.
“The Medical Board would welcome the truncation of planning and/or any other processes that could accelerate the next phase of development of the UHL site, in a similar vein to what happened in the national interest during Covid.
“The report has a clear message – patient safety is being compromised.”.
The Medical Board says it would like to work collaboratively with the Department of Health in rectifying the deficiencies identified in the HIQA report and members “wish to hear from the Minister for Health on exactly how she will progress the report’s recommendations”.
In response to the statement, the Department of Health said that “the Minister for Health and this government are fully committed to improving services in the Mid West region. The Programme for Government commits to continuing to increase capacity and open more beds at UHL and across the Mid West.”
“In addition, since December 2024, two 16-bed blocks have been delivered in UHL. Since 2020, a total of 236 beds have been delivered at UHL with planning permission for the second 96-bed ward block recently being granted by An Coimisiún Pleanála. Enabling works are already underway for this second block. In parallel, a third 16-bed ward will be progressed in 2026.”
