87 consultants at University Hospital Limerick demand change in open letter

ALMOST 100 doctors and consultants at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) have come together to urge change at the facility.

In an unprecedented step, 87 medics who work at the hospital have said their ability to provide care to their patients is "stretched beyond its current capacity."

"All staff, who are endeavouring to provide the best possible care to patients in these conditions are becoming increasingly demoralised, and as a result, the hospital is facing ongoing problems with recruitment and retention. UL Hospitals group is not adequately resourced to deal with the volume of emergency presentations," the letter reads.

comes just days after more than 11,000 people took to the streets of Limerick to demand better healthcare in the region.

Among those to sign the letter are consultant physician and geriatrician Prof Declan Lyons who earlier this month described conditions at the UHL Emergency Department (ED) as "inhumane" and "dangerous".

Referring to the ED, the letter adds: "Built in 2017 for maximum attendances of 190 patients, it is now overwhelmed with unacceptable pressure on all staff to endeavour to provide an appropriate standard of care."

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The letter stops short of seeking the re-opening of the ED facilities at St John's Hospital, Nenagh and Ennis.

But, it added: "The origins of this on-going crisis date back to the poorly resourced reconfiguration of hospital services in the Mid-West in 2009. The 640 beds to support this were never delivered. The withdrawal of direct emergency hospital care at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals was detrimental without the required capacity at UHL."

They urged additional resources to be put in place, and called on the Health Minister to bring this about through engagement with the clinical stakeholders and allocation of adequate resources.

"Currently, patients from remote parts of West Clare, for example, must present to the ED at UHL and regularly spend two to three days on a trolley before ultimately transferring, by ambulance, to their local hospital where they could have presented and been effectively treated in the first place," they point out.

"We call on the politicians of Limerick, Tipperary, and Clare to honour their commitments to the people of the Midwest and address the chronic under resourcing of the region, in both primary and hospital care, as a matter of absolute urgency."

Government has committed to opening a surgical hub in a number of locations including Limerick, for non-urgent treatments as a way to reduce the pressure on ED facilities.

The medical staff suggested this region be the first hospital group to open one of these.