A delegation from the Midwest Hospital Campaign appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsman on Thursday afternoon.
The campaign began in 2019 in response to the worsening Emergency Department crisis at University Hospital Limerick(UHL).
The campaign submitted a petition of 15,000 signatures to the Oireachtas committee in June 2022.
The petition calls for the restoration of Emergency Department services at Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s Hospital, Limerick.
The only Tipperary TD present for the two-hour session was committee Chair, Deputy Martin Browne – it is understood that Deputy Mattie McGrath was present for a short period of time.
The delegation engaged with a range of questions on what it calls the “the fourteen-year nightmare” that has developed since the downgrading of regional EDs commenced.
It was agreed today that the committee would negotiate with the campaign group on a list of relevant parties to the crisis that will be invited to appear at a future date to explain the way forward at UHL ED and the urgently-needed reform of the delivery of emergency healthcare in the Midwest.
The hospital consistently has the most overcrowded ED in all 32 hospitals in Ireland.
The group says they are acting not only as advocates for change but represent a community that has borne the brunt of a failed service reconfiguration since 2009.
