Limerick deserves so much better than UHL - Limerick Leader is imploring people to take a stand

WHEN a consultant physician speaks of the “inhumane” conditions in the Emergency Department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), it is time to say, “We deserve better!”

Professor Declan Lyons said conditions at the hospital are “inhumane” and patient safety is at risk.

The overcrowding has been going on for so long that it is easy to become immune to the story after story that is emerging from “the national basket-case”, as the hospital has been characterised.

But our children, parents and grandparents deserve better. As do the nurses and doctors and all the staff who expect, and deserve, to work in a safe environment in which they can deliver the professional care they are trained to provide.

THE Limerick Leader/Limerick Live will be out in force at a protest to highlight the overcrowding crisis at UHL, on Saturday January 21.

We implore all readers to take part.

This is an opportunity for business leaders, community groups, sporting organisations and charities to unite behind something that affects us all.

The protest starts at 11am at Merchant's Quay, before making its way up O'Connell Street and continuing on to Arthur's Quay.

“Nothing has changed, if anything it has gotten worse,” Trish Talty told the Limerick Leader on Sunday of the conditions at UHL since her late mother was treated there in 2019.

At 90 years-of-age Anne Talty, from Raheen , was forced to endure more than 48 hours of pain on a trolley and chair during what was then deemed to be worst ever period of overcrowding in the country at University Hospital Limerick.

Trish was with her mother (pictured) in the hospital at the time.

“The way she was treated in there was neglect. She was in so much pain. She had to get out of a trolley and sit on a chair. They kept banging into her. She had no chance to sleep. It was torture,” said Trish of her late mother who died on January 2, 2021.

Trish also had to endure another “nightmare” at the ED when she attended with another relative last summer. She said she begged the doctor not to send the relative to UHL but, in the end, she had to attend as she needed treatment.

“The nightmare in A&E that night was unbelievable. We were waiting nine hours.

“The more shouting people do now the better. It's inhumane. Ennis has to be reopened,” said Trish.

Pilot project to help reduce overcrowding in UHL commences

Meanwhile, following an emergency meeting, the executive council of the INMO has sanctioned the beginning of a consultation with nurses on a campaign of industrial action.

INMO president Karen McGowan said: “ Nurses and midwives are being asked to crisis manage a situation that is of our employers’ own making. We know that levels of burnout are at an all-time high.”

Actions taken to decongest the ED at UHL since the declaration of a “major internal incident” on January 2 are to remain in effect over the coming days.

There are reductions in day and elective surgery in UHL, Ennis, Croom, St John’s and Nenagh from this Monday, January 9.