The Mid West Hospital Campaign Group are planning a protest for April 13th to mark fifteen years of what it calls the “Failed Reconfiguration” of hospital services in the Mid West.
The protest comes as overcrowding and poor patient experiences continue in the Mid West especially at University Hospital Limerick(UHL) where 127 admitted patients are on trolleys today.
News of the protest comes in the aftermath of a verdict of death by medical misadventure yesterday at the inquest into the death at UHL of Mr Martin Abbott in December 2019.
Mr Martin was 65 and had a complex medical history – there were 141 patients in the Emergency Department on the day in question.
Mr Martin was found deceased on the floor beside his trolley – efforts to revive him were abandoned as rigor mortis had set in and Mr Abbot’s airway could not be ventilated.
His daughter is warning that the circumstances of her father’s death must serve as an urgent catalyst for change in Ireland’s healthcare system.
The reconfiguration changes made in 2009 saw the closure of Accident and Emergency Departments in Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s hospital with the Emergency Department in UHL to handle all cases.
The protest on April 13th will involve three convoys one from Clare, one from Limerick & one from North Tipp converging on Limerick city, and traveling via O’Connell Street and to the HSE Administration building in Raheen Business Park.
The intention is that the event is a protest and also a commemorative drive to mark fifteen years of the “failed reconfiguration.”
