Mid-West emergency care review 'step in the right direction', say campaigners
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A review of emergency care in the Mid-West to determine if a second emergency department is needed is a "step in the right direction", campaigners for better care said on Thursday.
The review will consider the case for a second emergency department to support University Hospital Limerick, which is regularly the most overcrowded hospital in the country.
Health watchdog Hiqa will lead the review and while the terms of reference have yet to be decided, it is understood that nothing is off the table when it comes to the options being examined.
Considerations may include whether a new hospital is needed or an existing hospital upgrade, and it may examine the benefits of further investment for UHL in bed numbers, for example, without a second emergency department.
The terms of reference will not be published until after a separate report on the death of teenager Aoife Johnston at UHL is completed.
This report, by former Justice Frank Clarke, will feed into the review.
As recently as last week, Hiqa indicated that patients at UHL still face risk of harm due to persistent overcrowding, despite improved and safer conditions.
This followed warnings during Ms Johnston’s inquest that the emergency department was “a death trap”, although HSE CEO Bernard Gloster later said the ED is “much more safe” now than in 2022, when she died.
Health minister Stephen Donnelly said he ordered the review “because of what’s happened in the hospital in recent months".
Asked about its timing, with local elections due next month, he said: “Over the last four years in UHL, there has been a level of investment, a level of increased staff unlike any other hospital.”
Asked whether a verdict of medical misadventure at Ms Johnston’s inquest and that into the death of Martin Abbott at UHL played a role in this announcement, he told RTÉ: “No, it didn’t but I am very conscious of those deaths."
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation "look forward to engaging with Hiqa and the minister on the terms of reference", said its assistant director of industrial relations for the Midwest, Mary Fogarty.
Overcrowding at the hospital has been “well-flagged” by the union, she said.
Nurses and midwives face “huge pressure” due to shortages, in parallel with a changing population, she said.
“It is clear that at this point we will need a model 3 hospital in the Mid-West," she said.
The University of Limerick Hospital Group is the only group without a model 3 site, in contrast to how, for example, the Mercy University Hospital works with CUH in Cork.
Noeleen Moran, a spokeswoman for the Midwest Hospital Campaign, said they believe a second emergency department is a necessity. “It’s a step in the right direction,” she said of the review.
National standards around patient safety and dignity are not being met, she said, adding: “The option of a model 3 has to be looked at; it is the only way that measure is going to be brought back into compliance.”
Campaign members also met HSE regional executive officer for the Mid-West, Sandra Broderick, on Thursday.