A demonstration has taken place in Limerick by the Mid-West Hospital Campaign group marking the 15 years since emergency department services in the midwest were reconfigured resulting in what they described as the appalling overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
Accident and Emergency units at Ennis, Nenagh and St John's hospitals were closed in 2009 as part of a decision by the government to concentrate all emergency services at UHL, now the region’s only acute hospital - serving a population of over 450,000 people.
Protesters from Ennis, Nenagh and Limerick led a convoy of cars through Limerick city, past UHL, to the HSE offices at Raheen Industrial Estate where HSE chief Bernard Gloster is based.
They laid flowers at the door to remember those who have died at UHL and those others who continue to suffer in conditions of chronic overcrowding.
The University of Limerick Hospitals Group made no comment on the protest or the call by the group to reopen other EDs in the region.
Taoiseach Simon Harris, speaking in Limerick last night, ruled that out on clinical grounds, but said he was deeply concerned that the heavy investment in both staff and beds in Limerick in recent years was not resulting in improvements for patients.
He said there had been very significant investment n UHL with its budget increasing by well over €100 million over the last four years - the budget of the hospital now stands at €383m - and there had been an additional 1,100 staff at the hospital.
While he accepted that bed capacity was an issue, he expressed a level of deep concern that investment had not been matched with improvements.
Mr Harris accepted that the reconfiguration in the region in previous years did leave the region short on bed capacity, but that the Government was working to address that.
He said he did not think the opening of a second ED in the region was the solution as this would be against clinical advice.
He said bed capacity was the issue in UHL but it was also about appropriate management of hundreds of millions of euro and thousands of staff, and that there is a need for real leadership at the hospital and it was not much to ask for a very close monitoring of the impact and return on that investment.
