WATCH: Minister for Health visits UHL to address bed capacity, ED figures and HIQA review

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill visited the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) to see the progression of works on the 96-bed inpatient block, which is nearing completion.

Expecting that the block will be fully open and operational in September, there have already been 16 “rapid build” beds opened in December 2024 and another 16 are forecast to be operational in June. 

Projections to have the 96 new en-suites rolled out by the autumn will bring the total to 252 beds available at the hospital by the end of 2025.

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HSE CEO Bernard Gloster and other representatives including Deputy Kieran O’Donnell, attended the lunchtime briefing this Thursday, where topics discussed included increased bed capacity, weekend roster hours for staff and a meeting between Minister Carroll MacNeill and the family of Aoife Johnston. 

16-year-old Ms Johnston passed away in 2022 of meningitis after she was left for more than 13 hours at UHL. Her death was today acknowledged by the Minister as “completely avoidable” and “unforgivable”.

Upon arriving in Limerick, the Minister noted also how she has “every confidence” in the UHL management teams in light of the 63% decrease in patients waiting on ED trolleys compared to the same Tuesday after the St. Brigid's Day bank holiday weekend in February this year. 

“It is a 70% drop over the whole weekend on the number of people waiting on trolleys - that to me is very encouraging,” Minister Carroll MacNeill said at the lunchtime briefing in UHL this Thursday. 

“We want to maintain that. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the new baseline. I want to thank every person in UHL that enabled that. It was a different way of doing things.”

In terms of the future of UHL and it’s ED, 1,121 submissions were made to the public to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) review of emergency services in the Mid-West according to the latest interim briefing, last updated on Wednesday, March 19.

The independent body is expected to publish its final advice to Minister Carroll MacNeill this May, one year on from when the previous government commissioned the review of urgent and emergency healthcare services across Limerick, Clare, and north Tipperary.

“Whatever they (HIQA) say, what I am really interested in is developing the capacity of this whole region, so that whatever ED is here, patients are coming to the ED and either being appropriately discharged or admitted to hospital. 

“That’s what I am focused on irrespective of what HIQA say when they publish their final report.”