Next Week – 96 Additional Beds Will Become Available At UHL.

University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is set to open 96 additional beds in the coming days, in what health officials say marks the first step in a long-term plan to ease chronic overcrowding at the Mid West Region’s main hospital.

The €96 million development, which has been under construction over the past three years, will deliver 96 single en-suite rooms, all of which are new bed stock. It is understood the unit will be fully staffed once it becomes operational next week.

This is the first of three 96-bed blocks planned for the UHL campus, with the second expected to open in 2027 and the third in the 2030s.

UHL has consistently been ranked the country’s most overcrowded hospital. This morning, figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) recorded 86 patients waiting on trolleys across the hospital’s emergency department and wards, while on the previous day, the figure stood at 118.

The hospital has come under repeated scrutiny from the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), which has found UHL to be understaffed and posing significant risks to patient safety. Inspections reported that patient dignity and privacy were routinely compromised in the overcrowded emergency department.

Public concern over safety at UHL intensified following the death of 16-year-old Ms Aoife Johnston in December 2022. An independent review by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke concluded her death was “almost certainly avoidable” after she waited 13.5 hours for life-saving medication. The report warned that without urgent action to address staffing and capacity, further avoidable deaths would remain an “inevitable” risk.

The emergency department at UHL is the only 24-hour facility serving the Mid West region-covering North Tipperary, Limerick, Clare, and parts of Cork and Kerry – since a controversial reconfiguration of services by Fianna Fáil government, back in 2009.
Campaign groups, including families bereaved at the hospital, continue to call for additional emergency departments to be established in the region.