The Medical Board of HSE Mid West has issued what it describes as an “unprecedented recommendation” to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, warning that risks to patient care at University Hospital Limerick remain “intolerable” and “unacceptable”.
The Board said the crisis at UHL is not new, but rather the result of years of underinvestment and insufficient acute hospital capacity across the Mid West region, which includes, North Tipperary, Limerick, and Clare.
UHL remains the main acute hospital serving patients from North Tipperary, particularly from towns including Nenagh, Roscrea and surrounding communities, following the reconfiguration of emergency services in the region.
In its statement, the Medical Board warned that severe overcrowding, high trolley numbers, delayed admissions and exhausted frontline staff continue to place patients at risk on a daily basis. Doctors said emergency services are operating without the capacity required to safely meet growing demand from an ageing and expanding population.
Chairman of the Medical Board, consultant surgeon Mr Colin Peirce, said frontline clinicians and patient advocates have repeatedly warned for years that the Mid West lacks the acute hospital infrastructure needed to deliver safe and timely care.
He stated that while staff continue to work under extraordinary pressure, “mitigation is not safety” and “corridor care is not acceptable healthcare”. He said patients are waiting too long for beds, treatment, privacy and dignity.
Four Immediate Demands:
The Medical Board is calling on Government to urgently implement four key measures:
- Establish a fully empowered HSE Mid West Development Board to drive delivery of the proposed new hospital project.
- Guarantee a full acute hospital with at least 400 beds in Phase 1 and long-term capacity for at least 1,000 beds, alongside the new maternity hospital.
- Provide emergency funding in 2026 to recruit additional consultants, nurses, NCHDs, allied health professionals and support staff.
- Suspend HSE staffing ceilings and recruitment restrictions across the Mid West until patient safety risks are stabilised.
Delays Continue Despite HIQA Findings.
The statement comes more than seven months after a HIQA review identified serious patient safety concerns linked to overcrowding and inadequate bed capacity at UHL. Doctors say many of those same conditions persist today.
Although Government approved plans in late 2025 to expand healthcare capacity in the Mid West, including additional services and a second acute hospital strategy, clinicians say progress remains too slow. A 44-acre site in Raheen was secured earlier this year for expansion of services linked to UHL, but the promised Development Board has yet to be formally established.
Growing Pressure Across the Mid West.
Doctors stressed that while hospitals in Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s continue to provide excellent care, they cannot compensate for the absence of sufficient acute inpatient and emergency capacity in the region.
For communities in North Tipperary, which rely heavily on UHL for emergency and specialist care, the ongoing crisis continues to raise serious concerns about access, waiting times and patient safety.
The Medical Board concluded that the Mid West can no longer continue operating in “permanent crisis mode” and warned that further delays in expanding hospital capacity risk prolonging unsafe conditions for both patients and healthcare staff.
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