Emergency Department entrance at UHL
Management at University Hospital Limerick have had to make urgent changes to cope with high attendances at the Emergency Department – only urgent elective surgery is going ahead in UHL over the coming days and all outpatient appointments for UHL are cancelled for today Tuesday 3rd January.
Management at the hospital says the unprecedented level of ED attendance is driven by a surge in patients with respiratory infections, including COVID-19, flu and RSV.
Extra staff including nurses and doctors have been asked to present to the hospital for duty, staff are being redeployed to care for additional patients in the ED, additional surge beds are being opened in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals, day beds in UHL are being converted to inpatient beds, a ward at Croom hospital is being converted to provide care for medical patients and an effort is being made to discharge patients to home or community care where possible. Anyone seeking medical care is asked to consider using Injury Units, GPs, out-of-hours GP services and pharmacists before attending an Emergency Department.
In addition, due to the high number of patients with flu and Covid-19 and a number of ongoing outbreaks, all visiting to UHL has been restricted to limited situations such as
Parents visiting children in hospital, people assisting confused patients (e.g. dementia), people visiting patients who are critically unwell or at end of life (on a case-by-case basis) . As of 8pm last night the National Ambulance Service issued an appeal for patience due to a large volume of calls for service. The Ambulance service is to deal with the most serious injuries and illnesses first. Nenagh based Cllr Seamus Morris, a member of the Regional Health Forum West, is calling for an emergency meeting of the management of UHL , Mid-West TDs , HSE West Board Members , County Council CEOs and Mid-West Fire chiefs given the current situation.
