University Hospital Limerick overcrowding
Deputy McNamara highlighted record trolley numbers at UHL and warned that the new bed unit would add fewer beds than expected. The Taoiseach said capacity problems in the west, especially Limerick, merited further examination and he would ask the Minister and HSE to pursue it.
I have raised the issue of overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick, UHL, many times with the Taoiseach's Government colleagues over the past two years. Yesterday set a new ignominious record for overcrowding in UHL, with 98 people on trolleys. At the same time we learn that the new 96-bed unit which is long awaited will actually deliver only 48 new beds; other beds will be taken out and replaced. I accept that any number of new beds will not meet the exponential growth in numbers on trolleys in Limerick, so there is a problem. I do not know what it is. Is it a problem with how admissions and discharges are done in the hospital? Is it that one of the other hospitals in the UHL group needs to be upgraded to a model 3 hospital? Will the Government commission an independent inquiry to get to the bottom of what the problem is with healthcare in the UHL group?
Comment on this
The Deputy has asked his questions fairly. I believe there are issues with capacity more generally around the western seaboard, involving the Saolta group, and more specifically in Limerick. This cannot be solved overnight but there have been moves on that front. The Deputy has raised a wider issue that does merit further examination. I will ask the Minister and the HSE to pursue that.