death by geography - Thurles Information

University Hospital Limerick Set A New Record

University Hospital Limerick (UHL) has set a new record. Alas, the new record is for the largest number of patients to ever end up being treated on a trolley / surf board, here in an Irish hospital, on Wednesday October 2nd, 2019.

This new record is based on figures supplied and published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which claim that today there are 82 patients being treated on trolleys in their emergency department and in overflow wards at this medical facility.

Readers Refresh Your Memories Here

This marks the second time in 2019 that UHL, which serves patients from North Tipperary, has managed to set a new record. April 3rd 2019 saw 81 patients on trolleys and the facility has succeeded in matching that same record three times; see July 11th, September 23rd and just last Tuesday.

While the electorate of North Tipperary remain silent, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation have now called on Minister for Health Mr Simon Harris for “direct, immediate intervention”, at this facility.

However, this is the same Mr Harris (Minister for Health) that has presided over: – The Smear Test Scandal; The Introduction of Abortion; No pain relief permitted for babies in late term abortion; The 2nd Smear Test scandal; A National Children’s Hospital that was permitted to run at least €1.25 billion over budget; The current fiasco that is the HSE; Growing Hospital waiting lists; Shortage of doctors, nurses, consultants and hospital beds; Abortion for children under 16, without parental consent; No medical care for babies that survive abortion; The Pain Patch scandal; and finally the spending of €27.9m (€76,000 per day) by the HSE on Taxi Cabs, to transport patient charts and files between hospitals, as well as transferring patients for treatment elsewhere.

Remember this is a government that “bowed and scraped”; spending up to €18 million Euro entertaining and securing US President Mr Donald Trump and his Irish decended US Vice President Mr Mike Pence, during both of their really unwanted visits to Ireland.

Help Required by UHL.

To help alleviate the problem; this UHL swamped hospital facility is rightly now calling for permission to cancel non-essential elective work. It is also seeking more home packages, latter which would allow for the moving of patient out of the hospital and thus freeing up beds. Finally, it has sought emergency funding to provide extra agency staff and an end to the “recruitment ban”.

Time for him to resign, in the knowledge that he and this misguided liberal-conservative Fine Gael minority government have totally failed the people of both North & South Co. Tipperary.

UHL requests come at a time when HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid has informed senior health managers to identify and put in place extra measures to limit, as much as possible, overruns within services.

University Hospital Limerick Once Again Most Overcrowded

This Article Should Be Read In Its Entirety.

U.H.L – Most overcrowded Hospital in Ireland

This morning, April 18th, 2019, nationwide, some four hundred and twenty-six patients are waiting for beds at hospitals in the Republic of Ireland.

Once again University Hospital Limerick, latter which serves North Tipperary, is the worst affected, with 58 patients on trolleys just starting the day.

Earlier this month, overcrowding in University Hospital Limerick was compared to that of a scene in a hospital, where a major national disaster had occurred, following 81 people found on trolleys on April 3rd last, with patient numbers jumping to above 90 as the day progressed.

A signed five page ‘Open Letter’ to the Mid-West Region, latter which includes North Tipperary.

Today, five Doctors, based at University Hospital Limerick, have written an open five (5) page letter outlining the continued serious challenges faced not just by hospital staff, but also by acutely ill patients unable to secure in-patient beds.

It is with profound regret, the five Doctors most justifiably claim that unacceptable numbers of elderly and frail patients are being left waiting, far too long, in their hospital emergency area, in the hope of a bed being located.

The open letter addressed to “the people of the Mid-West Region from the Clinical Directors of UL Hospitals Group”, can be read by clicking HERE.

The letter states that no matter how excellent an emergency department is “and the new one at UHL is a superb modern facility”, serious problems arise if there are not enough beds and enough access to staff, including doctors, nurses, diagnostics staff and step-down facilities.

Facts, stated in the letter, compare Beaumont Hospital in Dublin with University Hospital Limerick (UHL), thus further highlighting the vast urban / rural divide that exists in the Republic of Ireland.

Beaumont Hospital Dublin compared with University Hospital Limerick

[A] Beaumont Hospital Dublin has a whole-time staff of 3,728. University Hospital Limerick has 2,851 equivalent personnel. [UHL short 877 personnel]

[B] Beaumont Hospital Dublin serves a catchment area of 290,000 people. University Hospital Limerick, serving the Mid West catchment area, serves 385,000 people. [A difference of 95,000 people]

[C] Beaumont Hospital Dublin has 630 in-patient beds, while University Hospital Limerick has 454. [UHL short 176 beds].

[D] Beaumont Hospital Dublin had 52,856 new emergency department (ED) presentations last year. University Hospital Limerick had 63,850 new ED presentations last year, or 21% difference. [UHL admitted 10,994 more emergency patients].

Sorry “Mary for Tipperary” and “Garret for South Tipperary”, I suspect their remains no place for Fine Gael representing Tipperary dwellers in the next elections. This is despite your brochures showing that both of you were photographed beside An Taoiseach, Mr Leo Eric Varadkar and despite your weekly regular ramblings, broadcast to the Tipperary public on Radio TippFM. Perhaps you should set up offices in an area served by Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, if you wish to be in with a chance at that €94,535 basic TD salary, plus expenses.

The silence may remain deafening presently in Thurles and Tipperary in general, but the Ballot Box, no doubt, will confirm my suspicions.

Threatened Nurses Strike To Go Ahead Tomorrow

University Hospital Limerick, the medical emergency establishment servicing North Tipperary, had 59 persons waiting for a bed today, with patients forced to sleep on trolleys in corridors. This hospital is once again, singly, the worst affected hospital in the Irish State, through no fault of the staff working under extreme pressure.

Meanwhile the national threatened strike by nurses is to go ahead tomorrow, after the Labour Court decided not to make a formal intervention in their current dispute. over low pay and staff shortages.

According to the Health Service Executive (HSE), some 25,000 patients will have medical appointments disrupted/cancelled due to tomorrow’s unreconcilable strike action. More than 35,000 nurses, all members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), are due to start their strike at 8.00am tomorrow morning, running for 24-hour.

With no serious proposals put forward to resolve this dispute by the current Fine Gael Minority Government; contingency plans have now been put in place by the HSE, latter who reveal that in addition to 13,000 hospital outpatient appointments and 2,000 surgeries also being cancelled, a further 10,400 appointments in community care services will also be postponed.

Of the community care cancellations, some 1,500 of same will affect day-care for the elderly, while a further 1,500 will hit day centres for adults with disabilities and another 7,000 primary care contacts will also be cancelled.

We understand planned cancer surgery will proceed as scheduled, and an exemption has been secured for disability services in residential units.

Tomorrow’s disruption does not include the planned industrial action by 6,000 members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, who will commence an overtime ban on Thursday; gradually escalating to three full strike days, expected to materialise on February 12th, 13th and 14th, when the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation will also be again on strike.

How long more can this present government continue to rely on the silence of Irish hard working Taxpayers? Time surely for a clear-out.

Worst Ever Tipperary Hospital Overcrowding Figures Recorded

The Executive of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) are expected to meet next week to set dates for future strike action. The organisation claim that it has asked the Government to work with it and to try to resolve problems regarding recruitment and retention in nursing. This regrettably has not happened and 95% of INMO nurses and midwives have now voted in favour of industrial action.

Limerick University Hospital (UHL)

Overcrowding figures in hospitals in the early part of last year saw January (12,201), February (10,772) and March (10,511). The worst-hit hospital, in 2018, was Limerick University Hospital with 11,437, latter which is expected to provides acute-care hospital services, including a 24-hour emergency department, for the population of Ireland’s Mid West Region, which encompasses the counties of Tipperary, Limerick and Clare.

University Hospital Limerick is also the main teaching hospital for all six hospitals run by the HSE in the greater Mid-West Region [Others in this group include St. Munchin’s Regional Maternity Hospital, Limerick; Mid Western Orthopaedic Hospital, Croom; St John’s Hospital, Limerick; Mid Western Regional Hospital, Ennis, and the Mid Western Regional Hospital.] and is aligned with the Graduate Medical School at the University of Limerick

The smaller South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel, had 5,201 patients waiting on trolleys last year (2018).

In all, more than 108,000 patients went without a bed in Irish hospitals during 2018.

University Hospital Limerick A&E Opens Today

The long-awaited Accident & Emergency (A&E) department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) has opened its doors to patients for the first time this morning. This new facility will continue to serve the Mid West Region, an area spanning 8,248 km², and which takes in the geographical borders of the combined counties of North Tipperary, Clare, & Limerick.

Grave doubts were cast over the opening of this €24m facility last week when the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) justifiably raised concerns about staffing levels and other measures in place to tackle trolley numbers.

However, following a meeting on Friday last, it is understood that nurses concerns in relation to the immediate appointment of a clinical skills facilitator, as well as resolutions in issues relating to staff rosters and CT scans, were satisfactorily addressed.

Back in November 2016 UHL set a new record for overcrowding for a single hospital, with some 66 patients waiting for admission to its emergency department.