Nenagh based Cllr Seamus Morris is expressing concern at the lack of a commitment to build a second Emergency Department in the Mid West region in the Draft Programme for Government – Cllr Morris is a member of the HSE Health Forum for the region.
The Programme has one sentence about the issue and promises that the next Government will “continue to expand capacity and open more beds at University Hospital Limerick and across the Mid West and take account of the HIQA recommendations.”
The reference to HIQA, the Health Information and Quality Authority, may be key to the Government intentions – currently HIQA are completing a review that began last August into the provision of urgent and emergency care in the Mid West. As part of this review, HIQA was requested to consider the case for a second emergency department within the region in the context of the population changes in recent years and ongoing pressures at the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick. The review will also consider the report compiled by Mr Justice Frank Clarke into the operation of UHL – this report was requested following the death of 16 year old Aoife Johnston at UHL in December 2022 at a time of severe overcrowding.
HIQA is to publish an interim report before the end of January and submit it’s final report to the Department of Health in Summer 2025. There were 110 admitted patients on trolleys at the UHL yesterday – the highest of all 32 public hospitals.
