New 96-bed unit opened today at University Hospital Limerick.
A new 96-bed unit has opened at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), as part of efforts to ease chronic overcrowding at the Mid West’s main hospital serving North Tipperary.
Minister for Health Ms Jennifer Carroll MacNeill officially opened this new facility, which includes four wards of 24 beds each.
Around 400 additional staff are required to operate the unit, most of whom are already in place, according to the hospital.
UHL, which provides the only 24-hour emergency department for North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare, has consistently recorded the highest number of patients on trolleys in the country.
The expansion comes two weeks after the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) urged immediate action and investment to increase bed capacity in the HSE Mid West.
HIQA outlined three options: expanding the Dooradoyle campus, developing a new nearby site, or constructing a new hospital. Ms Carroll MacNeill said all options remain on the table, adding that increasing inpatient capacity is her priority.
Ms Carroll MacNeill also welcomed the recent granting of planning permission for a second 96-bed block at the Dooradoyle site.
According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), 100 people were waiting for treatment at UHL on Monday; 70 in the Emergency Department and 30 admitted patients still awaiting a bed.
Emergency departments in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals were closed in 2009 by under a Fianna Fáil led government, pursuing a reconfiguration of services, centralising emergency care at UHL.
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