Public urged to avoid University Hospital Limerick emergency department due to overcrowding

The operators of University Hospital Limerick issued an alert on Tuesday evening, urging the public to avoid the hospital’s emergency department due to high levels of patient overcrowding.

The UL Hospitals Group (UHGL) said the Limerick hospital was trying to manage “exceptionally high demand” for emergency and inpatient care, and urged people “to consider all care options before presenting at our emergency department”.

It said 249 patients attended the emergency department today, along with a daily average of 228 patients attending over the past week.

There were 103 patients on trolleys in UHL on Tuesday, the highest number nationally.

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The group said UHL “is currently at its highest state of escalation” and it had opened “surge capacity” at the hospital and at other hospitals in the midwest region.

The €24 million emergency department which opened in 2017, was built to cater for a maximum of 190 patents.

The group said this evening that it was reviewing elective activity at UHL “on a daily basis”, and, “only urgent and time-critical patients, including cancer cases” were scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, October 11th.

It said the emergency department, which is the only 24-hour emergency department across Limerick city and county, the whole of county Clare, and north Tipperary, remained open, and that, “urgent care is being delivered to those who need it most”.

“Anyone who comes to ED who doesn’t have a life-threatening or severe illness or injury will face a significant wait,” it warned.

Twenty-four hour ED services were closed in Clare and north Tipperary and streamlined to Limerick in 2009, however there have been renewed calls by hospital camping groups and UHL staff for a reversal of the measure.

The ULHG urged the public to seek care for non-life threatening ailments at local injury units as well as at Medical Assessment Units (MAU) at the group’s other hospitals in the midwest region.

However, it said these units were “also experiencing an increase in demand” with an average of 166 Injury Unit attendances and 54 MAU attendances in Ennis Hospital, Co Clare, St John’s Hospital, Limerick, and Nenagh Hospital, Tipperary, over the past nine days, compared to 121 injury unit attendances and 35 MAU attendances last year.

The group said it was “encouraging to see this increase in demand for services, as more patients choose alternatives to the ED”.

It added: “We apologise to anyone who has had a long wait for admission to University Hospital Limerick in recent days, we ask the public to support us in ensuring emergency care is prioritised for the sickest, most seriously injured and frailest patients.”

“Everyone in the area can help reduce pressure on the ED by considering all the options available to them if they need medical attention. However, the public should be assured that anyone who is seriously injured or ill, or worried their life may be at risk, will be assessed for treatment in the Emergency Department as a priority.”