The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has warned that exceptionally high demand and overcrowding in the Emergency Department of University Hospital Limerick (UHL) cannot be resolved without an immediate major intervention on beds and doctor numbers.

The IMO was responding to an appeal by UHL for the public to consider alternative healthcare services where appropriate given the extraordinary demand being placed on its ED.

Speaking today, Prof Mick Molloy, Chair of the Consultants’ Committee of the IMO, said that overcrowding in the UHL ED was a direct result of under-resourcing of the health system. “The IMO has for some years argued that ED overcrowding is a year-round problem and not confined merely to winter surges, and we are seeing evidence of this now. The reason our EDs become overcrowded in the first place is because there are not enough available beds in hospitals to which patients can be transferred, along with doctors to treat them – a problem that is particularly acute in UHL.”

He said that the situation in the mid-west was particularly challenging due to the fact that services in Ennis and Nenagh were closed over 15 years ago without adequate additional capacity being made available in UHL.

He said that the mid-west region had suffered particularly badly as a result of these disastrous policy decisions as well as under-investment. “The mid-west region – and Limerick in particular – have suffered for many decades from high deprivation levels which have only gotten worse as the population of the region has grown. While there have been some attempts to address the problem, they have not been sufficient and patients are suffering the consequences now. The provision of healthcare facilities for the people of Limerick is critical and making that happen should not be delayed or scaled back because of the cost or amount of planning it involves.”

Prof Molloy said that it was important that clinicians in UHL were supported by the HSE to deliver care to patients. “It is unacceptable that patients, doctors and other healthcare staff are facing constant struggles to access and deliver care in a hospital that is wholly under-resourced.  The HSE must support the doctors in UHL with resources to enable them to deliver care and support the patients in the region with more beds.”

Prof Molloy added that patients who are on trolleys have been assessed and need admission to hospital. “This is a systemic issue that has nothing to do with rostering or doctor productivity. This is the effect of years of short-term thinking in our health system which is epitomised by under-investment in beds and doctors.”

He added that a HIQA report on the health service in the mid-west published last year outlined the scale of the challenge. “We cannot expect any improvements unless these basic realities are addressed as a matter of urgency.”