Pressure on over hospital decision

Signs of Limerick overcrowding abating

Oireachtas members from the Mid-West region have increased pressure on the Minister for Health to take action on the recent HIQA report on emergency healthcare at University Hospital Limerick.

Fourteen public representatives, including North Tipperary Fianna Fáil TD Ryan O’Meara, have signed a letter calling on Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to establish a board tasked with planning the delivery of a new hospital for the region.

It comes amid signs that overcrowding at the hospital’s emergency department (ED) is abating following the opening of the new 96-bed block last month.

Limerick is still the most overcrowded hospital in the country, with 64 patients on trolleys in the ED there last Monday, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. But the INMO figures show that the numbers have dropped to between 53 and 67 patients per day compared to a daily average of 80 last September.

Speaking at the opening of the €105 million block last month, Minister Carroll MacNeill said a decision on whether to build another hospital providing the Mid-West with a second ED would be made by Christmas.

A new hospital was the third of three options published by HIQA at the end of September, and the one most favoured by local representatives and the Nenagh Needs Its A&E / Midwest Hospital Campaign. The first option is the expansion of capacity at UHL on its existing site; the second option is an extension of the UHL hospital campus to include a second site in close proximity under a shared governance and resourcing model.

‘NEITHER FEASIBLE NOR DELIVERABLE’

In their letter, reported on by RTÉ News last week, the Mid-West politicians dismissed the first option as “neither feasible nor deliverable” given the existing hospital site’s “extreme congestion”.

They wanted HSE Mid-West to “identify and acquire a suitable new site, along with a fully costed and time-bound delivery plan, prioritising bed block delivery in tandem with proposed capital investment in clinical infrastructure, to be submitted no later than April 1, 2026”.

The letter signatories furthermore requested Minister Carroll MacNeill to establish a hospital development board tasked with preparing a comprehensive plan for the delivery of a new hospital, and that indicative costings for these proposals be included in the revised National Development Plan.

The letter was described as “a cross-party proposal”, signed by Oireachtas members from counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary, including Minister Carroll MacNeill’s Fine Gael party colleague Minister Patrick O'Donovan, and Fianna Fáil ministers Timmy Dooley and Niall Collins. It was co-signed by the HSE Patient and Service User Council, the representative body for approximately 420,000 patients across the region.

WELCOMED BY SINN FÉIN

Tipperary Sinn Féin representatives Damian O’Donghue and Dan Harty welcomed the Oireachtas members’ letter, which was signed by all three of their party’s elected representatives in the region. They said it was interesting to note the Oireachtas members that did not support the letter.

But Mr O’Donoghue of Nenagh Sinn Féin added: “This is not about party politics; it’s about fairness and access to safe care. UHL is beyond capacity. A new hospital, along with expanded and reformed emergency services, is essential to meet the needs of our growing population.

“Sinn Féin is committed to delivering a modern, well-resourced healthcare system that works for everyone in the Mid-West, including the people of North Tipperary, who have been left without adequate healthcare for far too long,” Mr O’Donoghue said.

Mr Harty of Sinn Féin in Thurles described the HIQA report as a “wake-up call” and said the Government could not delay any longer in acting on it.

“People in Tipperary and across the Mid-West are being forced to wait hours and even days for treatment. Staff are working in impossible conditions,” Mr Harty said. “Sinn Féin will continue to fight to fix the crisis in our healthcare system.”