VISITING RESTRICTIONS are to be implemented across all of UL Hospital Group’s hospitals following a spike in hospitalisations of persons with the flu.
One visitor per patient is now in place at Ennis Hospital and all other UL Hospital Group sites while no patient should be visited by a person who believes they may have the flu.
High attendances have been reported at the emergency department of University Hospital Limerick (UHL). Management have said there is significant inpatient admissions which has been driven by a spike in hospitalisations of people with flu over the past week.
On Monday (December 30th), there are 76 patients in UHL with the flu, a 204% increase on the 25 recorded on Monday of last week.
With the demand on services, management have decided to restrict visitor access across all sites to one visitor per patient, children are not permitted to visit adult wards, strict visiting hours of 14:00 to 16:00 and 18:00 to 21:00 are to be enforced. Visitors must clean their hands on entry and exiting of wards. Visitors to UHL are being advised to wear face masks, which are available in the hospital.
HSE Mid-West has appealed for people not to visit any of our hospitals at all if they feel they have flu.
ED attendances at UHL over the last three days have averaged 288 compared with 2023’s average daily attendance of 219. Over the past two weeks attendances have increased by 30% compared to 2023. This is part of a national trend, which saw flu hospitalisations across the country increase from 742 people on Friday to 809 on Saturday.
CEO of the HSE, Bernard Gloster stated, “We expect the number to reach around 900 in the coming week and are taking several measures to prepare for the potential surge in hospitalisations and intensive care admissions due to the flu”.
To respond to the demand in the Mid West, as elsewhere in the country, community healthcare measures have been ramped up, including longer opening hours at some GP practices and increased out-of-hours services.
HSE Mid-West urges people across the region to assist in curtailing the spread of flu by staying at home if you have symptoms. People should adhere to simple coughing and sneezing etiquette, such as using a tissue or coughing/sneezing into your elbow, and not your hands. You should consider all available healthcare options, including local pharmacies, your family doctors, or the ShannonDoc out-of-hours GP service on 0818 123 500. Visitors to our hospitals are asked not to visit if you have any symptoms of vomiting or diarrhoea, a cough, cold or a temperature.
HSE Mid-West is also providing access to urgent care facilities as an alternative to ED. These include: Injury Units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals, operating 8am-8pm all year including bank holidays and weekends. Patients are typically seen and treated in under two hours, no appointment is needed, and there is no charge if you are referred by your GP.
Medical Assessment Units are located in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s hospitals. They provide an alternative option for GPs to secure prompt assessment and treatment of medical patients who otherwise might have presented to ED at UHL.
Additional consultants are on duty in UHL at weekends and bank holidays to assist with patient discharges and hospitals have limited surgical treatments to urgent cases only.
A spokesperson for Friends of Ennis Hospital has said that the numbers presenting at UHL were to be expected. “Without a second ED in the Midwest the Emergency Dept at UHL will continue to struggle as presentations in the ED continue to rise year on year which is entirely predictable given the age profile of our population”.
Friends of Ennis Hospital are currently running a patient survey to gather feedback on health services over the Christmas period in order to gauge where the shortfalls are in the health service in the Mid-West outside of the ED.
