A Health Service Executive support team is to be put in place in an attempt to ease overcrowding in health services in the midwest region.
The HSE said the team would begin its work "immediately and over the next four weeks to help devise a number of actions designed in particular to ease overcrowding and pressures in the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick".
It comes amid ongoing overcrowding issues at UHL, which the Mid-West Hospital Campaign Group has described as "really, really dangerous for patients to be left in".
The support team announced includes; Grace Rothwell, National Director, Orla Kavanagh, Director of Nursing and Integration at Waterford University Hospital, and retired Emergency Medicine Consultant Dr Fergal Hickey.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said he was concerned at the pressures on health services in the area.
"We need to provide re-assurance to the people of the Mid West region and address the very serious pressures on the services. While a number of interventions have been made, I have spoken to the Chief Executive of the need to address this situation immediately. The support team should deliver an improvement for patients quickly."
Meanwhile, HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloster said the support team would work "to manage patient flow and de-escalate the current pressures being experienced".
"The HSE is conscious of the pressures in various hospitals regarding the number of patients on trolleys awaiting admission. This is recognised by the HSE as a key safety concern and a variety of ongoing assurances are necessary in such situations.
"While challenged in a small number of sites we are particularly so in Limerick at this time. Patient flow involves the whole of the Health Service and we are using our own internal mechanisms to support the Mid West Region for the next number of weeks," he said.
Responding to the announcement, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said: "Any measures to alleviate the pressure on nurses and midwives in the Mid West region is to be welcomed.
"The INMO is looking forward to meeting this team at the first available opportunity to give our perspective and views on what can and should be implemented in the Mid West.
"The provision of safe and timely care must be the priority for this team.
Health service 'failed' Aoife Johnston
On Sunday, Mr Gloster said the health service "failed" Aoife Johnston and that failure "led to her death".
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme, Mr Gloster apologised on behalf of the health service to the 16-year-old's family.
"There is only one thing that we can say to them, and that is that we apologise, we are sorry," he said.
"We failed Aoife, our failure led to her death. We failed them as a family."
On Friday, a verdict of medical misadventure was returned at the inquest into the death of Ms Johnston.
Ms Johnston, from Shannon in Co Clare, died from meningitis on 19 December 2022.
The 16-year-old had presented at the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick two days earlier, with suspected sepsis, but faced a lengthy wait for treatment.
