People in fear of going to Limerick A&E with trolley figures at same level as when Aoife died
Calls for urgent action after damning inquest verdict
PERSISTENT overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick has left people ‘in fear’ of going to its emergency department, with urgent action required to address the problem.
It follows the verdict of medical misadventure in the inquest for 16-year-old Aoife Johnston, who died following ‘systemic failures’ in her care.
The inquest heard Aoife was not seen by a doctor in the hospital for 12 hours, despite having been referred to UHL by her GP with suspected sepsis.
During the hearing, a doctor who treated Aoife before her death in December 2022 described the hospital as a ‘war zone’.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which has frequently warned that overcrowding at the hospital is putting patients and staff at risk, said there were 106 patients on trolleys there yesterday.
Local Labour councillor Conor Sheehan said this was twice the level of overcrowding at the second most overcrowded
‘Would rather die at home’
hospital, Cork University Hospital. He said: ‘The verdict of the inquest into the tragic death of Aoife Johnston highlights how her death should never have happened and could have been prevented.
‘An emergency medicine doctor has described our hospital as a “death trap”. The dysfunction must be addressed now. We need more than lip-service to Aoife and her family; we need to see urgent action from the Government.’
Mr Sheehan called for the HSE recruitment embargo to be lifted and for a budget package to fill the 200 staff shortages at UHL.
He said: ‘We also need Government to commit to the need for… a level 3 hospital in the midwest that has an emergency department.’
Noeleen Moran of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign said people living in Clare, Limerick and Tipperary were ‘in fear’ of having to go to University Hospital Limerick’s emergency department and ‘would rather die at home’.
Ms Moran said overcrowding was ‘a consequence’ of the closure of other emergency departments in the region in 2009.
‘There’s been a lot of words of sympathy expressed to the family but there’s no sincerity behind those words unless actions follow. The only meaningful action that’s going to change things in the midwest is an additional emergency department,’ she told RTÉ.
On Newstalk, Irish Patients Association (IPA) director Stephen McMahon questioned if changes had been made. He said reforms should be possible without first needing a funeral.
‘The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine has regularly highlighted the fact that overcrowding can lead to increased mortality,’ he said. ‘Everybody needs to look in the mirror and put their hands up and to necessitate urgent change.’
Local GP Dr Yvonne Williams said trust in the ED at UHL had been eroded over the past 10 to 15 years. She said many elderly patients now refuse to be referred to UHL, while those with health insurance preferred to go to Dublin, Cork or Galway.
‘We’ve had a few tragedies in the last couple of years so people are very distrustful,’ Dr Williams told RTÉ. ‘Faith has been lost in the emergency department.’
She said doctors in the area had warned that capacity at Limerick wouldn’t be enough when other centres, including Ennis and Nenagh, were closed.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin yesterday accepted the need for a review of the emergency response service in the midwest. ‘It is unquestionably a failure of care in the hospital and serious action has to take place,’ he said.
The HSE said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly had announced measures to support the hospital’s ED. A HSE spokeswoman said: ‘In addition to adding 86 acute, sub-acute and rehabilitation beds in the region this year, the opening hours of the region’s three medical assessment units – at Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s – are to be extended to 24/7 on a phased basis, while a new GP and Advanced Nurse Practitioner service has commenced at the ED to alleviate congestion.’
She also said that nationally, a new ‘escalation framework’ was introduced in 2023 to strengthen patient safety in EDs.