The Minister for Health is being urged to meet Oireacthais representative in the Mid West after one Clare TD said patients in the county are “scared” to attend University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
Violent Anne Wynne said a meeting is needed to discuss the ongoing overcrowding crisis at the hospital.
The Independent TD said she has heard “harrowing” stories of constituents’ time in the emergency department.
In a letter to Stephen Donnelly, Deputy Wynne (Ind) said, “Over the weekend and up to today, my office has been inundated with correspondence from constituents regarding the situation of deep concern owing to the major internal incident at University Hospital Limerick, the region’s only Model 4 Hospital. The stories that have been recounted to me over the past few days are nothing short of harrowing and are a scathing indictment of the management of this Hospital, and the HSE’s Winter Plan. I am sure that all of my colleagues in the Mid-West are receiving a high level of correspondence on this issue as well, and I’m sure that some of them have been in touch separately.”
Dep Wynne continued, “I think that for the sake of transparency what is needed now is an emergency meeting between your Department and our Oireachtas representatives from the constituencies in the Mid-West region. My constituents are scared to attend UHL for fear of being abandoned on a trolley for three days. They have serious questions, and those questions require serious answers. I am requesting this meeting and a reply to this letter as a matter of priority given the extremely time-sensitive nature of these concerns”.
“If you do not take what has happened over these past few days as a lesson and set about to reopen the A&E at Ennis as a matter of priority then this situation will be repeated again this time next year. Minister, we know the problem – we have known the problem for over a decade, what we need now is a solution. What we need now is leadership. I beg you, please don’t let the Mid-West dwindle and die”, Dep Wynne added.
