AT LEAST FIFTEEN ambulances queued up outside the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick this afternoon due to high levels of patient overcrowding, sources said.
There were 81 patients in the corridors of the emergency department and on wards today.
Yesterday, there were 90 on trolleys at the hospital and 72 on Monday, according to figures published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
Sources in the ambulance service said the situation has been building for the past three days.
Three reliable sources confirmed that “fifteen” ambulances queued up at the emergency department today.
All 24-hour emergency department services in the mid west were previously reconfigured into UHL and the hospital has sought an additional 96 bed unit to try to help it cope with patient numbers, despite more than 100 additional beds coming on stream at the hospital last year.
Most of the additional bed capacity in 2021 had been set aside for Covid-19 patients.
One source said ambulance crews were “marooned” in the hospital today, as there was not enough trolleys in the hospital to hand over their patients to hospital staff.
Reliable hospital sources said staff are treating patients who are attending the emergency department who could be adequately treated at local injury clinics which operate across the mid west.
Independent Limerick TD Richard O’Donoghue, who was a patient at UHL last week and witnessed for himself the “chaotic” scenes of patient overcrowding, called for 24-hour emergency departments to be reopened and staffed in Clare and north Tipperary to alleviate pressure on UHL.
Last month the INMO called on the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to “investigate overcrowding” at UHL.
On 25 January, the union said it recorded 97 patients without a bed at the hospital “the highest number recorded in any Irish hospital since the union began compiling trolley figures”.
Responding this evening, a UHL spokesman offered that: “Along with the long standing and well documented challenges arising from a shortage of acute hospital beds in the Mid-West region, UL Hospitals Group is also continuing to manage extraordinarily high levels of demand for emergency care.”
He said provisional data showed that ED attendances during February were “27% greater than 12 months ago” and that the “average daily attendance for the month was 13% higher than the 195 average attendance for all of 2019”.
“A total of 6,217 patients attended ED last month (compared with the 4,828 who attended in February 2021), an average daily attendance of 222 patients.”
“On no working day last month were attendances fewer than 220. Weekend attendances averaged 173 during February, and on the final day of the month, Monday February 28, the department was managing the highest attendances of the month – 272 patients in 24 hours.”
“It must also be noted that those attending are presenting with more severe and complex illnesses than heretofore, and a higher proportion of admitted patients are requiring longer stays for treatment and recovery, and while Covid restrictions are being relaxed, the pandemic is not over, and we continue to care for patients with or recovering from the disease.”
The hospital spokesperson said that “one of this is to minimise the inconvenience our admitted patients feel when they have to wait a long time for a hospital bed, and we would like to assure the public that we are doing everything that we can to maximise patient flow and minimise wait times”.
“We continue to follow our Escalation Plan, which includes use of surge capacity, undertaking additional ward rounds, accelerating discharges and identifying patients for transfer to our Model 2 hospitals, and we are using our Community Intervention Team (CIT) and Early Supported Discharge Team (ESDT) services to assist with the timely discharge of patients.”
He urged the public to avoid the ED and visit local injury clinics, “however, if you are seriously injured or ill or are worried your life is at risk the ED will assess and treat you as a priority”.
The National Ambulance Service (NAS) was asked for comment but did not respond.
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