Second A&E department considered for Limerick - new private hospital to help public patients
DISCUSSIONS are taking place in relation to the provision of a second emergency department (ED) facility in Limerick amid record demand at University Hospital Limerick.
A private hospital is being developed on lands at Coonagh by the non-profit University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), but for use by the public.
Announced 12 months ago as part of a wider €400m project, the facility will see a new 200-bed hospital, a medical training and research centre, with the scheme expected to be delivered within four years.
After it was confirmed that public patients will be accepted as part of a partnership with the University of Limerick Hospitals Group (ULHG), the Leader can now reveal that a new ED is being discussed.
Multiple sources have indicated “if there is a need for it, it can be provided.”
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for UPMC stated: “This decision will be in full collaboration and complimentary to the services currently under the governance of ULHG.”
Only last month, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation reported record overcrowding at the ED in Dooradoyle, with 111 patients without a bed one morning.
If a second ED did open north of the Shannon, it would provide a service to thousands of people without the need to cross the city.
The new hospital will also help service local waiting lists – described as “enormous” by UPMC.
As revealed by this newspaper last month, there are some 55,977 people waiting for their first outpatient appointment across ULHG’s six hospitals, a huge rise since the onset of Covid-19.
The new hospital on the northside will operate as a public facility, UPMC has confirmed, and will be “integrated into the overall acute hospital and community services offering of the UL Hospitals Group providing further services in the Mid-West region.”
It will be overseen by a joint governance board, with a source confirming it will be managed in a similar fashion to St John’s Hospital in the city centre, which itself saw its ED close in 2013.
“The overall vision is to develop and operate a new, world-class healthcare facility which will contribute significantly to improving healthcare,” UPMC added.
The potential of a public hospital operating within a private healthcare setting is likely to be politically challenging for some.
However, City North councillor Frankie Daly, a member of the HSE West forum said: “The reality is, we need resolutions now, not 10 or 15 years down the line. There are plans afoot, a co-ordinated approach and it’s positive.”
Another forum member, Cllr John Egan, who has spoken openly of his own hospital experience, added: “If facilities are there, be they private or public, they should be used up to the max.”