Clare Sinn Féin TD, Donna McGettigan, has criticised the Minister for Health for a lack of urgency in implementing the recommendations of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report on Emergency Care in the Mid-West.
The HIQA report on emergency care in the Mid-West was published on 30th September 2025 and made three recommendations on addressing overcrowding and capacity challenges at University Hospital Limerick. The recommendations included the construction of an additional Model Three Hospital in the Mid-West region.
Donna said, “The Midwest region has been underfunded for decades by successive governments, and we are now left cruelly exposed as winter looms. Earlier this week public representatives from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary met the HSE Mid-West for a briefing.
The feedback from the HSE officials presented the public representatives with a situation of impending catastrophe – with a strong suggestion that this winter there is a high chance of avoidable deaths at University Hospital Limerick. They outlined that they are expecting up to 400 presentations at the UHL ED each day of the winter, with presentations expected to exceed 102,000 people by the end of 2026. UHL is at 125% capacity and simply can’t deal with this amount of people.”
The Clare Deputy continued, “There is an immediate need for additional bed capacity this winter. However, the longer-term solutions to this crisis were presented to the Minister over a year ago. They were presented in the three recommendations of the HIQA report on Emergency Care in the Mid-West. Namely, the significant expansion of acute inpatient beds at the existing UHL Dooradoyle campus. The extension of the UHL campus by adding a second site nearby under a shared governance and resourcing model, and the development of a new hospital in the Mid-West region featuring a second Emergency Department. A year later we have no clarity if we will get a new hospital with acute beds.”
“Of the three, the establishment of a new hospital in the Mid-West offers the best hope, long-term, to ending the deplorable state of emergency care in the Mid-West. This is a long-term fix. It is the one that will take the most time to complete and yet there seems to be no urgency whatsoever in implementing this.”
Donna added, “I am in dread about the situation patients and staff will face in UHL this winter. The Minister for Health should hold an immediate meeting with the HSE to address this looming crisis in our region. We need a proper plan for this coming Winter; we all are deeply concerned that this winter will be catastrophic for our region. To implement the HIQA recommendations, we need a medium-term plan for the next 3-5 years.”
Concluding her remarks, Donna called on the Minister for Health to remove barriers to employing additional healthcare staff, and to allow UHL Hospital Group to purchase acute beds that are available in the region and for the Minister to fastback the implementation of the HIQA recommendations.
Donna said, “The Minister seems unwilling to take the necessary steps to address the crisis at UHL and the wider Mid-West. I am urging the Minister for Health to use all the resources available to her to ensure all necessary resources are in place at UHL this winter. She must allow the vacant jobs to be filled, with no posts filled since late June. She must fast-tack delivery and the implementation of all 3 HIQA recommendations and confirm that the Midwest will be getting new acute beds and a new hospital. We have zero time to lose.”