DAY SURGERIES have been cancelled at Ennis Hospital while long waits are “inevitable” at University Hospital Limerick’s emergency department according to hospital management.
246 patients presented to the emergency department at UHL on Monday which followed a busy weekend for the six hospitals within the UL Hospitals Group.
Management have cancelled day surgeries at Ennis Hospital to try create additional capacity for medical patients. Impacted patients have been contacted directly by the hospital.
During the wave of respiratory infections in the month of January, day surgeries were also cancelled at Ennis Hospital.
Elective activity is continuing on all our other sites today, and the Group’s hospital management team (HMT) is keeping the situation under review on a day to day basis. Cancellations of elective activity are provided for in the Group’s Escalation Plan.
UHL remains very busy, a spokesperson for UL Hospitals Group outlined, “managing a high number of patients presenting at our Emergency Department (ED) and the public are being asked to consider all available healthcare options to avoid long waits for assessment in the ED for less urgent cases”.
Medical teams are also undertaking additional ward rounds to identify patients suitable for transfer to Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals. “We continue to work closely with our colleagues in HSE Mid West Community Healthcare in order to expedite discharges. Anyone presenting to ED today with a less urgent condition is going to face a long wait for care. We urge the public to consider all available healthcare alternatives to ED,” the spokesperson added.
“Less acutely unwell patients are asked to first consider our Injury Units, GPs, out-of-hours GP services and pharmacists before attending ED”.
Injury Units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s are operating as normal. Opening hours for Ennis and Nenagh Injury Units are 8am -8pm and St John’s Injury Unit 8am-7pm.
“We apologise to every patient who is currently experiencing a long wait for admission at UHL, and for the inconvenience and frustration this causes for patients’ loved ones,” the spokesperson said.
