Limerick TDs tackled on UHL crisis: Brian Leddin Green Party TD for Limerick City
Following the declaration of a ‘major internal incident’ at UHL, we ask local TDs where the fault lies and what they think should be done to solve the crisis.
What steps are you currently taking to try to address the issues which have blighted University Hospital Limerick in recent months and years and which saw a ‘major internal incident’ declared at the hospital on January 2, 2023?
I have been liaising with the Minister for Health and the hospital management. I have been in constant touch with the officials. In the past year I have been engaging with the Minister and the HSE on the issue of the high number of people leaving the UHL Emergency Department without being discharged or receiving treatment. I have been pressing for the reopening of Emergency Departments in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s and have been highlighting the urgent need for an elective hospital in Limerick.
Where - or with whom - do you think the fault lies in terms of the crisis at University Hospital Limerick?
It’s clearly a matter of resources across the entire local health system, i.e. GP services, other community health services, etc, being reduced during the holiday period, from an already stretched situation, coupled with seasonal spike in infections and the ongoing Covid pandemic, all on top of a limited capacity at the UHL Emergency Department.
The pandemic is overburdening health systems across the world, but even without this I believe there is a capacity constraint and the blame for that lies with successive governments. It is important to stress that the situation at UHL is the result of constraints there, but also elsewhere in the health system. There are insufficient GP services and other community care services and these close at Christmas time and that has a knock-on effect on UHL. Within UHL itself there clearly have not been enough resources allocated to meet the spike in numbers presenting.
Do you think the current management team at University Hospital Limerick should be retained? If so, why?
Unless there is clear evidence of management failures then I believe they should be retained. Calling for their removal without presenting such evidence is a knee-jerk reaction and inappropriate. There should be ongoing review of management in any organisation and I would support such a review, without prejudice, into UHL management’s handling of this crisis. But we should acknowledge that management are telling us they need more resources.
We should listen to management, and provide the necessary resources, rather than blame them unless there is clear evidence of failures.
In no more than 200 words, how do you believe the ongoing crisis at University Hospital Limerick can be solved?
The immediate crisis is being actively managed and there has been progress. However, there is a longer term challenge about capacity which, to date, has not been taken seriously by the Department or successive governments. On the one hand we are saying we want the city and the region to grow fast, and for the population of Limerick City itself to increase by 50% by 2040.
Yet, we are not planning for a steep ramping up of capacity that this demographic increase will clearly necessitate. This has to change. A working group in 2018 recommended new elective hospitals for Dublin, Cork and Galway, but not Limerick. That does not make sense given the challenges we have right now, let alone the extra burden that will come with a fast growing city-region.
Do you think a vote of no confidence should be tabled against Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly?
No, I don’t. I think that’s playing politics with the issue and won’t solve it. We need to impress upon the Minister how serious the issue is and demand that the right plan is put in place for the Mid-West.