{"id":233055,"date":"2025-12-14T22:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/233055\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T22:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T22:33:10","slug":"announcement-of-solution-to-overcrowding-at-uhl-expected-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/233055\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcement of solution to overcrowding at UHL expected this week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is expected to announce this week which solutions she will bring forward to fix the overcrowding crisis in University Hospital Limerick <\/a>(UHL).<\/p>\n

She was offered three options by Hiqa in September including: expanding UHL capacity (option A), building an elective hospital nearby (option B), or building an additional hospital with an emergency department (option C).<\/p>\n

Patient advocate John Wall <\/a>said a “once in a life-time opportunity” now exists to end the devastating overcrowding and ensure tragic deaths are not repeated.<\/p>\n

Mr Wall is a cancer survivor and member of the HSE midwest regional patient and service user council which met the minister and local politicians recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have died as a result of the conditions that exist and we owe it to those people and their families not to have this happen again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

“For the staff also, they are doing their best and facing those challenges every day and every night.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

His hopes rest in the hard-hitting Hiqa report and said it would be \u201cinconceivable\u201d for the options not to be acted upon.<\/p>\n

\n There is an opportunity now, a once in a lifetime opportunity.\n <\/p>\n

The council\u2019s view is option A is underway with a 96-bed block recently opened and another under construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an out-patient at UHL, the last time I was there I could not physically get in,\u201d he said. \u201cI was 45 minutes waiting, queuing to get into the car-park.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was late for his appointment as were many others, including some who parked in a rush in places later needed by construction workers to access the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was very courteous, very respectful but this all adds to the stress for patients,\u201d he said, pointing out staff face similar issues.<\/p>\n

The council feels option B should be a greenfield site with potential to develop option C there.<\/p>\n

This, he explained, is referred to locally as \u2018A plus B equals C\u2019.<\/p>\n

A key concern is avoiding arguments over locations whether that is Limerick, Clare, or Tipperary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we get hung up on locations, we will end up talking about this in 20 years\u2019 time,\u201d the Clare man said.<\/p>\n

Costed delivery plan by April 2026<\/p>\n

The council supports a letter sent by politicians in the region to the minister calling for a site to be urgently identified with a costed delivery plan by April 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot play politics with this,\u201d he said, adding there should be investment in ambulance services and community services too.<\/p>\n

Mr Wall is also keenly aware elective hospitals announced for neighbouring Cork and Galway in 2022 are now expected to be only at shovel-ready status by 2030.<\/p>\n

He called for any decisions this week about Limerick to be \u201cup and running\u201d quickly, adding: \u201cThere is no reason for that not to happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Midwest Hospital Campaign has expressed frustration at a \u201cdisjointed\u201d political response to the Hiqa report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of this region, who have carried the burden of inadequate services and led the campaign for safe, accessible healthcare deserve full transparency,\u201d a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey deserve to be informed. And, crucially, they deserve to be heard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The campaign is now running a survey to canvas the public on what they want next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is expected to announce this week which solutions she will bring forward to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[1201,18,135,475,474,19,17,5,1202],"class_list":{"0":"post-233055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-court-and-crime","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-health-care","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics-and-analysis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115720303617620233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}