Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she had not ruled out sanctioning the construction of an additional hospital, or reopening former hospital emergency departments (EDs), in order to increase bed capacity in the HSE Mid West region.
The Minister told reporters at the consistently overcrowded University Hospital Limerick (UHL), where she on Monday officially opened a €105 million 96-bed block, “all of the options are on the table”.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said she had until “before Christmas” to decide which of three options for increasing capacity, as outlined in a Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report two weeks ago, were her preferred choice.
The health watchdog’s review of emergency healthcare in the Mid West recommended either the construction of an additional hospital; extending the UHL site; and/or providing additional capacity off the UHL site.
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The Hiqa report said the “core issue” was there were “not enough inpatient beds” in the region, and “immediate action” was required to add capacity “to address current risks to patient safety in the shortest time frame and safest way possible”.
Ms MacNeill said while she was “open to all three options that Hiqa have identified”, her priority was to provide capacity in the short term.
Works have already begun on a second 96-bed block on the UHL site, with a third proposed.
The Minister said the current plan to add capacity at the UHL site will transition the region from having the “lowest per capita in-bed ratio” in 2020, to having “the second highest in the country” by 2028.
The 96-additional beds opened at UHL on Monday was a “significant step towards addressing the bed capacity deficits in the Mid West”, she said.
Ms MacNeill pledged to discuss with all stakeholders in the region, including patient groups, on their ideas to build bed capacity
“I’m thinking about 20 years ahead and what this region is going to need,” she said.
The Mid West Regional Hospital Campaign Group, which includes families of loved ones who have died on hospital trolleys at UHL during severe overcrowding conditions, have repeatedly called for the reopening of EDs in Ennis, Co Clare, and Nenagh, north Tipperary, and St John’s Hospital, Limerick, that were closed in 2009 and reconfigured to UHL.
When asked if she was open to reopening the emergency units, as a means of relieving pressure on the overcrowded emergency department at UHL, the Minister said the EDs would require additional support services, but “all of the options are on the table at the moment”.
The Minister said a number of other measures have already been implemented to ease pressure on the Limerick ED, including placing more beds into hospitals that provide step-down supports to UHL; increasing medical assessment units; and providing virtual wards, “because we don’t want people coming to the emergency department unless they really need to”.
However, the Minister acknowledged a 20-year vision was “not going to be enough” and additional capacity plan strategies would be required.
An estimated 400 staff are required for the 96-bed block that opened today. It is understood 300 staff were recruited and the remaining 100 staff was being provided by agency staff as well as a complement of staff already within the hospital.
