SQUEEZED IN
Medic forced to turn sideways to negotiate hospital corridor as 86 patients left to languish on trolleys
THESE are the chaotic scenes inside University Hospital Limerick (UHL), with 86 patients on trolleys yesterday.
Despite measures being introduced to ease persistently high levels of patient attendances, it remained the most overcrowded hospital in the country yesterday.
Photographs from inside the corridors of three zones within the emergency department (ED) show patients on trolleys stacked up alongside one another on both sides of the corridors and staff trying to work in the cramped conditions.
Patient overcrowding remains a problem in other areas of the country too.
Cork University Hospital was the second most overcrowded hospital nationally with 54 patients on trolleys in its ED and six on wards. Also, there were 30 or more patients on trolleys in University College Hospital Galway; Sligo University Hospital; St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin;
‘The hospital remains in a state of high risk’
and the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin.
Across the country, 543 admitted patients were waiting for beds yesterday morning, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch. In Limerick, elderly patients and younger patients lay cheek-by-jowl on the trolleys with no adequate privacy or dignity.
One of the photos shows a female medic having to squeeze sideways past two trolleys on either side of a corridor in one of the ED zones. Forty-three patients were on trolleys in UHL’s ED yesterday along with 43 more on trolleys on wards, according to figures published by the INMO.
The hospital is experiencing persistently high numbers of patient attendances and is the only Model Four hospital that includes a 24hour ED, catering for a catchment of almost 400,000 across Limerick city and county, Clare, north Tipperary, parts of north Cork and north Kerry. A ‘major internal incident’ was declared at UHL on January 2 when the hospital experienced unsustainable levels of patient attendances. The Limerick City and County Fire Service has conducted five inspections of the ED and surrounding areas since then.
Building has begun on a 96-bed block on the grounds of the hospital, with a second 96-bed unit also being sought by the UL Hospitals Group (ULHG) to offset a lack of capacity for the population.
A ULHG spokesman stated on February 8 that ‘although the major internal incident at UHL in early January has been stood down, the hospital remains in a state of high risk in terms of the potential for presentations through the emergency department to exceed our capacity for optimal care’.
UHL was experiencing ‘significantly higher’ attendances than in previous weeks and therefore has maintained an ‘escalation plan’ whereby additional ward rounds, accelerated discharges of inpatients and identification of patients for transfer to the Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s hospitals was continuing. Ambulances are also ferrying 112/999 patients to medical assessment units in Ennis and Nenagh instead of only to the UHL ED under recent protocols.
Aside from the ED, ‘high numbers of inpatients’ were being managed ‘through surge capacity in UHL and across our sites’.
A limited resumption of day surgery had commenced in Nenagh with Ennis to follow suit and elective activity was continuing across the group’s six hospitals in the mid-west. There were almost 50 elective surgeries cancelled at UHL due to the major internal incident last month.
‘Any cancellations are deeply regretted, but have been necessary in the interests of keeping hospital services safely open for time-critical cases and patients most in need of immediate care,’ added the spokesman.
ULHG has consistently asked that patients not attend the Limerick ED unless they require emergency care. An updated response from ULHG has been sought on whether there have been any major changes or updates to the recently introduced mitigatory measures.