The University of Limerick hospital group has confirmed that some scheduled and day care surgeries have resumed at hospitals across the group, after all elective and outpatient care was postponed over three weeks ago.
However, the resumption is subject to a daily review of how services are being impacted by large volumes of patients at its emergency department.
The group announced on 8 August that significant reductions in scheduled care came into effect across five hospitals in the group as it tried to manage the overcrowding caused by high volumes of patients attending its emergency department.
The prioritisation of urgent and emergency care at University Hospital Limerick resulted in a deferral of elective inpatient and day surgery, endoscopy and outpatient appointments at UHL, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, St John's Hospital in Limerick city and at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital.
Services at the University Maternity Hospital in Limerick city were not impacted.
Urgent cancer and cardiology services and urgent paediatric surgery also went ahead.
In a statement today, the group said scheduled care is gradually resuming across five hospitals in the region.
Outpatient clinics have now resumed at all affected hospitals.
Inpatient and day case activity, as well as endoscopy services are gradually being stood up across the group – but this resumption is subject to a daily review and is being managed within available resources and in line with the group’s escalation plan.
That plan allows for reductions in scheduled care when there are significant surges in activity through the ED which present challenges in patient flow and adversely affect patient experience.
The reduction in scheduled care did have an impact on overcrowding at UHL’s emergency department, which saw significant reductions initially.
There was a high of 120 patients waiting on trolleys in the emergency department and on wards at UHL on 8 August.
This number dropped down as low as 12 on 23 August - the first time in over a decade that UHL was not the most overcrowded on the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s trolley watch list.
However, waiting figures have crept up again in the past week.
Today, there were 82 patients waiting at UHL according to the INMO’s list.
That has reduced to 33 this lunchtime according to the HSE who also compiles its own daily list of urgent and emergency care at each acute hospital across the country.
