A ROW between management and nursing unions at the largest hospital in the midwest has resulted in medical equipment being left idle while children are sent for treatment to other facilities.
The equipment was bought for a new paediatric high-dependency unit at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Limerick, more than four years ago, but there is still no sign of the unit opening.
In the meantime, critically-ill children are being treated in an adult intensive care unit or transferred to other hospitals.
A Limerick woman living in Ruan, Co Clare, has begun a campaign to have the unit opened as soon as possible. Paula Montwill says her now healthy four-year-old son could have died because life-saving equipment had been "left in boxes" at the Dooradoyle hospital.
"Sam was born by Caesarean section in June 2004 at 31 weeks. He was sent immediately to the neo-natal unit at the maternity hospital, where he spent five days on a ventilator before he could breathe on his own and spent a further six weeks in the neo-natal unit before being discharged to go home."
After just two weeks at home his condition had deteriorated and he had to be admitted to the accident and emergency department at the Mid Western. Having seen Sam cared for in the neo-natal unit of the regional maternity hospital across the city, Ms Montwill had assumed that the hospital in Dooradoyle had a similar unit.
"Since then I have found out that at that particular moment those ventilators that he needed . . . were sitting in boxes in the corridor just around the corner."
In a statement, the HSE said: "The unit in question has been designed and equipped for some considerable time. We are still attempting to reach agreement on staffing levels with the nursing unions. The issue has been referred to the Labour Relations Commission on a number of occasions but so far without any successful resolution."