ELECTIVE PROCEDURES at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) have been cancelled for Wednesday (tomorrow) with all UL Hospitals Group sites including Ennis Hospital reported to be very busy with a high amount of inpatients.
Long waits are inevitable for non-urgent cases at the emergency department in UHL with “extremely high numbers of sick patients” presenting at the emergency department (ED). The public have been asked to consider all available healthcare options as UHL again continues to struggle.
In the 24 hours between 8am on Monday morning and Tuesday morning, a total of 278 people attended the ED, among them significant numbers of children and of frail elderly patients with complex health conditions.
This has led to the cancellation of elective surgeries in UHL, a spokesperson for UL Hospitals Group outlined, “Unfortunately, demand for inpatient beds is such that we have had to cancel all but the most time-critical elective surgery at UHL tomorrow (Wednesday). We apologise to all patients impacted by this decision, who are being contacted directly by hospital staff this afternoon. We will work to ensure these patients are rescheduled at the earliest opportunity. Elective activity is continuing across our other sites tomorrow, and our Hospital Management Team (HMT) is keeping the situation under constant review”.
Management and staff in UHL are working to their Escalation Plan to create surge capacity, and medical teams have been 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 than urgent condition is going to face a lengthy wait for care. We urge the public to consider all available healthcare alternatives to ED”.
Less acutely unwell patients are asked to first consider 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.
