Safety concerns for pregnant women due to lack parking at maternity hospital
THE LACK of parking at University Maternity Hospital Limerick has been criticised with some calling it “wholly unsafe for women”.
Concerns have been raised by Limerick city resident John Mulvihill as he has to either drop his wife, who is pregnant with their second child and in her third trimester, off outside the hospital on the busy Ennis Road or they have to park and walk from the Strand Hotel to her appointments due to the “lack of organisation” and “chaos”.
“We’re out there once a week and it’s always the same,” said Mr Mulvihill who is from the Castletroy area.
He has described it as a “battle” trying to get as close as possible to the entrance of the hospital.
“If you don’t get out there extremely early you haven’t a hope of parking anywhere close to the maternity hospital.
“I usually drop her off on the road and she has to walk to the hospital. It’s not safe or fair for pregnant women. You physically cannot get in there. There’s a lack of security and it’s a total mess,” Mr Mulvihill told the Limerick Leader.
For times when Mr Mulvihill parks his car, he usually ends up in the Strand Hotel car park, which costs a fee while parking at UMHL is free of charge.
“Whenever I do drop her off, women who don’t have the option of getting a lift and are heavily pregnant are crossing the road. It’s not safe,” he mentioned.
The Limerick Leader previously highlighted concerns about the issue in 2019, but Mr Mulvihill has said it has gotten much worse since then.
“The first time she was pregnant it was fine to get parking. I know it was the pandemic but it is just out of hand now. Nothing has been done on the issue.”
Mr Mulvihill mentioned that there is no “structure or order” to the car park itself.
“They seriously need to realign it, you can barely make out the spaces.”
University Maternity Hospital Limerick opened in 1960 as St Munchins.
The hospital is a stand-alone maternity hospital and is the sole provider of obstetric, midwifery and neonatology services in the Mid-West region - serving a population of approximately 380,000 people.
A comment is awaited from UL Hospitals Group.