Ambulance paramedics were permitted to bring patients directly to the medical assessment unit at Ennis Hospital from this morning as one of the measures to ease severe and consistent overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick.
However elective and scheduled day surgeries at five of the six hospitals in the UL Hospital Group are being reduced this week to free up beds at Ennis and Nenagh hospitals and at St John's in Limerick city and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital, also as part the measures to ease emergency department overcrowding.
Under a new protocol being piloted at Ennis Hospital, ambulance service personnel are permitted to bring patients with stable medical conditions directly to the medical assessment unit (MAU) at Ennis, as opposed to transporting them directly to UHL.
However this will only be the case if they meet agreed clinical criteria, and following consultation with MAU physicians in Ennis.
Three non-critical patients were brought directly to the medical assessment unit in Ennis today instead of to the region's emergency department at UHL.
Medical assessment units have been used by GPs to provide direct access to some procedures for patients, bypassing the ED when possible.
People with serious life-threatening conditions such as cardiac arrest or stroke or victims of trauma in need of acute surgery will continue to be brought to the emergency department at UHL.
The UL Hospital Group said it expects that high attendances at its ED and further high numbers of patients requiring beds will continue this week and in the coming week as it manages a wave of illness largely driven by acute respiratory conditions.
Only time-critical elective surgery will take place this week at UHL.
Day surgery at Ennis, Nenagh and St John's has also been cancelled this week, as day beds at these hospitals are being used as additional capacity for those requiring beds locally, or those patients who are being transferred from UHL.
Some planned or elective orthopaedic surgery at Croom is also being deferred to clear up beds there. The group said patients affected are being contacted directly and it will reschedule these operations as soon as possible.
Outpatient appointments cancelled last week at UHL resume today, and outpatient clinics at Ennis, Nenagh, St John's and Croom remain unaffected.
