HIQA has confirmed that it is yet to commence a review in the provision of Urgent and Emergency healthcare services in the Mid West Region. Earlier this year the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announced that he would ask HIQA to investigate if a second Emergency Department(ED) was necessary in the region. The region has only one ED serving Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary and is unique in Ireland in not having a Model 3 status hospital.
The commencement of the HIQA Review was delayed when the Department announced that the recommendations from the Clarke report into the death of Aoife Johnston at UHL in December 2022 would be considered in setting the terms of reference for the HIQA review. HIQA now says it “intends to publish the terms of reference for its independent review into urgent and emergency healthcare services in the mid-west region shortly.”
The HSE has received the report from Mr Justice Frank Clarke and has met with Ms Johnston’s family to share the details – the report has not been published in any form to date.
The University of Limerick Hospital Group suspended most planned care two weeks ago at all five of it’s hospitals to implement changes in patient flow procedures intended to reduce overcrowding in the ED. The Mid West Hospital Campaign Group has been informed that there is now a relaxing of the suspension of service for patients with high clinic priority and that some outpatient appointments including endoscopy cases and day cases have resumed this week.
