A new emergency department is to open at University Hospital Limerick early next year with one hundred extra staff to be hired.
Sinn Féin TD, Maurice Quinlivan told The Clare Herald he received confirmation from from both the Minister for Health, Simon Harries and the CEO of University of Limerick Group Hospitals to a series of questions he submitted.
Quinlivan has represented Limerick in the Dáil since February of this year and the party’s spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation welcomed the news.
“I am very happy that we finally have an opening date of early 2017 for the new Emergency Department. The Emergency Department at UL is one of the busiest in the country with 60,000 attendances annually. The numbers presenting continues to increase year-on-year and of those presenting the proportion requiring admission, including many frail elderly patients has also increased. Clearly, the new Emergency Department is desperately needed. An added bonus is that 100 additional staff will now be hired to staff the new department which is three times the size of the existing one”.
He added “I can confirm that a multidisciplinary steering group is to be setup and that it will hold its first meeting in September. The group will manage the transition of the existing staff and oversee the recruitment of 100 additional staff for the new department. Staff will also to be recruited to operate the new state of the art dialysis unit at the hospital. The people of the Mid-West region deserve a 21st century health service and they have waited long enough for what is a basic yet vitally important key public services”.