Call made to postpone hospital projects nationally until things improve in Limerick

HOSPITAL upgrades around the country may need to be postponed in order to ensure the recommendations of the Hiqa report are fully implemented at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

That’s according to the medical board of the Dooradoyle hospital, who responded to the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report.

This found UHL's emergency department was non-compliant with national standards, and suggested ways to solve it - including extra capacity, or an extra site. Now, the hospital’s medical board has said they would hope to see other medical plans around the country potentially take a back seat while the issues at UHL are dealt with.

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In a statement, they wrote: “We are seeking clarity from the Department of Health on the mechanism for channeling the resources required for urgent capital development in the Mid-West. If necessary, we believe this may require the re-phasing of capital projects elsewhere in the country until such a time as equity of access to emergency healthcare for all families in Ireland is achieved.”

The board said it hopes to work collaboratively with the Department to achieve this.

But they added: “We hope to no longer hear the HSE or the Department of Health blame staff in HSE Mid-West for problems that have yet again been clearly identified as those of physical bed capacity.” Instead, the “deficiencies” patients here receive should be acknowledged, they added.