A new 96-bed unit at University Hospital Limerick has been opened by Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
UHL provides the only 24-hour emergency department in the region, including Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary. It also receives patients from parts of north Cork and north Kerry.
The hospital consistently has the highest number of patients being treated on hospital trolleys in the country.
The new block, which consists of four wards of 24 beds, requires around 400 additional staff, the majority of whom are in situ.
Recruitment is ongoing to fill the remaining posts, according to the hospital.
The opening of the block on the Dooradoyle campus comes two weeks after HIQA published a report recommending "immediate action and investment" to increase bed capacity in HSE Mid West.
Ms Carroll MacNeill has said all of the options recommended in the recent HIQA report are on the table.
The report said: "The core issue is that there are not enough inpatient beds in HSE Mid West which are capable of treating the sickest patients who present for urgent or emergency care.
"We recommended immediate action and investment to address current risks to patient safety in the shortest timeframe and safest way possible."
In 2020 inpatients in HSE Mid West were the lowest in the country, according to the Minister, and by 2028, she said they will be the second highest in the country.
"This hospital needs more inpatient capacity. We are open to all three options that HIQA has identified," Ms Carroll MacNeill said.
She added that HIQA has clearly identified option A and B as being the priorities to meet the patient safety need and that is her priority.
"All of the options are on the table," she added.
She also welcomed news that a second 96 bed unit at the Dooradoyle campus was granted planning permission last week.
According to the INMO, there are currently 100 people waiting to be treated at UHL; 70 are waiting to be seen in the Emergency Department and 30 have been admitted and are waiting for a hospital bed.
Urgent and emergency healthcare services in the midwest were reconfigured in 2009, with the closure of three smaller emergency departments at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals, and the centralisation of ED care at UHL.
