A Co Clare TD is calling for outside-the-box thinking when it comes to tackling hospital overcrowding in the Midwest – up to and including the use of local hotels for short-term bed capacity.
Fianna Fáil Deputy Clare Cathal Crowe made the call following a meeting held this morning between Midwest Oireachtas members, the UL Hospitals Group and the HSE, attended by an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and chaired by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
“I think the current crisis demands a thinking outside-the-box approach and we saw how successful that worked during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Deputy Crowe.
“There was a time when using hotel bedrooms and larger communal rooms, such as function rooms, to provide public healthcare would have been unthinkable, indeed many would have scoffed at the idea but there is a trialled and tested precedent in recent years.
“It is widely anticipated that a further 96 bed block will be applied for UHL this year but the construction and fulfilment of that could take more than two years and I don’t think the mid-west region can wait that long.
“Management at Tallaght University Hospital acquired a vacant retail building, across the road from their main hospital building, to open the Reeves Day Surgery Centre in 2020; by the same token, I have suggested to the Taoiseach, Minister Stephen Donnelly and Professor Colette Cowan that the Limerick South Court Hotel, less than a kilometre from UHL, should be considered as an additional capacity building option on an interim basis.
“In terms of other pressure-alleviating measures are concerned, I am becoming increasingly confident that the HSE will enhance operations at Nenagh General Hospital’s Medical Assessment Unit so, like Ennis General Hospital, it will be able to receive ambulances and provide immediate care to patients who have been triaged and screened by paramedics.”
Following the meeting, Independent TD Violet-Anne Wynne said; “I have spoken with the CEO of UL Hospitals Group Prof. Colette Cowan, and she has assured me that the transferring of patients by ambulance to the MAU at Ennis Hospital for care where possible will continue beyond the end of this current massive level of overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick.
I have sought assurances that resources will be ramped up to ensure that this new MAU pathway will not detract from the existing services provided at Ennis Hospital. I have not received those assurances; however, I have been informed that the management will meet again next Monday to discuss the possible increase in resourcing required at the hospital.”
“I wrote to the Minister last week asking him to convene the meeting that took place on Wednesday morning, and I will be writing to him again on foot of it to request that a taskforce is put in place to re-evaluate the decisions made to close the Emergency Department at Ennis Hospital and what the best steps forward are to ensure that all hospitals within the UL Hospitals Group are operating to the best of their ability to lessen and keep the pressure off the bottleneck in the Emergency Department at UHL.”
National Ambulance Service crews have been able to transport non-emergency patients to Ennis General Hospital’s Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) since Monday.
