Minister for Health Stephan Donnelly is in University Hospital Limerick to mark the start of construction work on a new 96-bed unit which it is hoped will go some way toward relieving the chronic overcrowding and increasing acute bed capacity at the mid-west region's main hospital.
The new unit, to be built over the existing emergency department marks an investment of €90 million, but will take two years to complete and equip.
The Minister said it represents a significant and much needed development for UHL and underlines the government's commitment to investing in modern fit for purpose infrastructure that is critically important for the delivery of safe care across our health services.
The University of Limerick hospital group have initiated a number of changes in its patient flow processes in recent weeks which they believe have made a difference to the overcrowding issues at its emergency department and on its wards.
However they admit these changes alone will not solve the problem of overcrowding at UHL.
This will require significant investment in hospital bed capacity and staffing, to address what has been identified as the underlying imbalance in the number of beds it has and the staff employed there for its population size of almost 400,000 people.
A recent Deloitte report commissioned by the hospital group said it needed 302 inpatient beds by 2036 to address the shortfalls in its current capacity and to meet the needs its growing elderly population, in a region which will have the highest number of older citizens by 2040.
The hospital management at UHL have been working with the HSE's national support team to improve patient flow, integrate better care pathways and avoid hospital admissions.
The initiatives include the appointment of a Head of Operations, and six new Patient Flow Coordinators, with funding to increase this to ten.
The average length of stay in hospital for patients has reduced from over five days to just below that, and the number of patients who stay longer than 14 days has been reduced from 132 to 118 in September.
They have also initiated earlier discharges from the hospital, and processing more transfers to its model two hospitals in St Johns in Limerick city and at Ennis and Nenagh hospital.
They also have a plan for an Older Person Assessment Centre or OPAC as a hospital avoidance measure, but it will require funding for additional nursing and allied health professional staff and they are being supported by the national team in progressing this plan.
They have what are described as 'Frailty at the Front Door teams' - multidisciplinary teams who they say are helping in avoiding hospital admissions for some elderly patients in their ED these will be part of the team at the OPAC, but again will depend on hiring sufficient staff.
UHL is frequently the most overcrowded hospital on the INMO' trolley list - in the past 15 days, including today it has been the most overcrowded on four of those days.
