University Hospital Limerick

THE Health Service Executive is people seeking medical care to consider all options before attending the emergency department at University Hospital Limeri.

"I think in an environment where there is significant overcrowding that process can become very tricky and it likely, I think, to lead to mistakes so I don't think there is any question that the type of environment that we have been dealing with in recent times does lend itself to mistakes, it does lend itself to adverse clinical outcome for some patients and it is a serious serious concern." "If you have 100 patients in the emergency department, you can be absolutely guaranteed that five of those will be critically unwell and the first challenge in the emergency department is to identify the five that are sick as opposed to those that aren't that sick. A 'major internal incident' was declared at UHL on Monday and a number of measures have been put in place to alleviate the overcrowding at the hospital.

Consultant Physician and Geriatrician at UHL Professor Declan Lyons said that the hospital is a "national basket case" and that the environment in the emergency ...

The situation was very serious and was compromising patient safety, he said. The hospital has imposed a restriction on visitors, in their efforts to manage the situation. Consultant Physician and Geriatrician at UHL Professor Declan Lyons said that the hospital is a "national basket case" and that the environment in the emergency department is now extremely difficult to work in.

Consultant Professor Declan Lyons has repeated a warning about the “inhumane” and dangerous conditions in the emergency department in University Hospital ...

The situation was very serious and was compromising patient safety, he said. The patients spent three days on a trolley in UHL before being sent back to Ennis hospital. Under the reconfiguration direct emergency access at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s hospital were withdrawn and patients were instead directed to UHL. When asked if conditions had led to the deaths of any patients, Prof Lyons explained that if there were 100 patients in the emergency department, there was a guarantee that five would be critically unwell, the challenge was to swiftly identify those five patients. Prof Lyons said that the severe overcrowding being experienced in UHL at present was an extension of what had been seen over the last few years – which was “chronic and persistent overcrowding in the emergency department”. The hospital has now been characterised as “the national basket case” he said and the environment in the ED has become extremely difficult to work in with

A record 931 admitted patients are waiting for a hospital bed, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, as the HSE urges people seeking ...

However, here we are, with frontline health services in crisis all over the country." The problem is people are so sick now, they need to be admitted to hospital, but there aren't sufficient beds for them," she said. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. "What we need to see is the emergency resourcing of out-of-hours GP services immediately and our primary care services given all they need to relieve the pressure on our emergency departments. Prof Lyons said "conditions in many instances are inhumane" for patients and are not appropriate for the evaluation of patients who are sick. In a statement, the UL Hospital group said the "unprecedented" number of people attending the emergency department has been driven by a surge in respiratory infections, including Covid-19, flu and RSV. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr McCallion said the advice to people to seek alternatives to attending emergency departments is set to continue for the next number of weeks and that while care in EDs currently is "far from ideal", clear protocols are in place to prioritise care for those who need it most. "And we know that the government and the HSE and the public health authorities are looking for people to wear masks now but they're not mandating it. "We know that our hospitals can't cope, so therefore, the only thing we can do is to prevent the transmission of respiratory illnesses and we know that one small measure that has worked in the past is mask wearing. "We know that masks are cheap, they are efficient, and that when our hospitals can't cope, the Government has to intervene and provide assistance to our hospitals in a different way." She said the HSE is asking people not to attend emergency departments if it can be avoided, but added that "the call is falling in the wrong area". The INMO said 767 patients are on trolleys in emergency departments and 164 are on trolleys elsewhere in hospitals.

The HSE is asking people to consider all options before going to a hospital Emergency Department.

[Mr McCallion told Newstalk Breakfast ](https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/highlights-from-newstalk-breakfast)there are several factors to this. "We know this is going to be a difficult period, as the flu is still to hit its peak, and that's the reason we're making that plea to people". "We're still encouraging people to come forward - a wide range of options [are] available," he added. "It's not too late for people still to be vaccinated," he said. "These are things like using the private hospitals, additional sessions being run by GPs, and also then in terms of prioritising the urgent and emergency work," he said. "What we're experiencing at the moment are particularly high levels of respiratory illness in terms of COVID, flu and RSV," he said.