Campaign seeking upgrade of Limerick hospitals heads to Dublin
CAMPAIGNERS have travelled to Leinster House to highlight their petition calling for “necessary upgrading” of public hospitals in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.
The Mid-West Hospital Campaign met with health spokespersons from four political parties to raise their concerns.
The purpose of the visit was to highlight their petition for the reopening of the emergency departments at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s and also to call for greater support measures to improve the health situation in the Mid-West in the short term.
A spokesperson for the campaign said that they used the visit to make clear that despite expert intervention, “unacceptable” levels of overcrowding persist at University Hospital Limerick.
“We emphasised that we have both an emergency care problem and an elective care problem in the Mid-West which are two separate issues which can only be resolved with the addition of more model three hospitals in the region.
“An elective hospital alone will not be enough. We asked them to cost upgrading Ennis and Nenagh to a Model 2S as an alternative to a private elective hospital and as a stepping stone towards the achievement of a full public model three hospital catering for the elective and emergency care needs of all the people living in the Mid-West.
“We asked them in the interim to look at the pilot project running at Mallow Hospital to alleviate overcrowding at CUH and to ascertain if this could be extended to Ennis and Nenagh to at least keep ambulances in the county where they can reach people in a timely manner.
“We also raised the out of hours GP services and the lack of alternatives for those who find themselves sick out of hours and highlighted the need for greater support to strengthen these to help reduce presentations at the emergency department.”