The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and senior officials from his own department, and from the HSE have reviewed the operation of the 29 Emergency Departments and especially Limerick ED following a HIQA report which found it to be largely non-compliant with standards. Members of a HSE Expert team recently deployed to Limerick ED also contributed to the review. The Chief Operations Officer of the HSE has now ordered the Performance Management Improvement Unit (PMIU) of the HSE is to engage urgently with UL hospital management and the local Community Health team. This is being done under the HSE’s Performance Accountability Framework. The PMIU will work with both the hospital and community teams to ensure that the issues identified in the recent assessment, and the HIQA report, are addressed as a matter of urgency.
This may include actions to reduce the need for hospital admission, work on pre admissions to avoid long waits in ED; community interventions where possible to provide care outside the ED and alternative pathways for diagnostics as well as issues regarding patient flow through the hospital and ED. The Health Minister has committed that all necessary resources will be made available to ensure safe and appropriate levels of care are restored in Limerick without delay. The Minister confirmed that Capital investment in the hospital and community healthcare is ongoing and more is required to improve the capacity to deliver health care in the Mid West.
