HSE chief executive visits University Hospital Limerick

“THIS week while it has been the worst week on record, we can’t be certain that it won’t get worse before it gets better,” chief executive of the HSE Stephen Mulvany said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland ahead of a scheduled visit to University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

On January 2, there was a declaration of a major internal incident by the Hospital Crisis Management Team (HCMT) and a number of extraordinary measures have been taken to reduce overcrowding, in particular in the Emergency Department.

The chief executive of the HSE had a scheduled visit to UHL as part of a series of visits the HSE management is undertaking across all Irish hospitals.

Measures to ease overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick to remain in effect

Speaking on Morning Ireland Mr Mulvany said: “The main purpose [of the visit] is to be on the ground and understand directly from staff and management what’s happening, to be visible and offer support and in some cases, we can try and take away some problems to solve nationally…”

“It’s part of our whole system response to a clear and present patient safety danger,” Mr Mulvany said.

Mr Mulvany says that the influenza virus has not yet reached its peak so it is hard to predict how many people will present themselves to hospital.

“That’s why as part of our main efforts we’ve asked all of our staff, both hospital and community as much as possible for the next two to three weekends to work across the weekends so we can level the load over the weekend and drive down as much as possible that trolley number…” Mr Mulvany said.

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A planned protest regarding the ongoing crisis at UHL will occur on Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 11am.

The protest will start at Merchant’s Quay in the city, through parts of Limerick city before making its way out to UHL.

A number of meeting points have been scheduled throughout Limerick for those who cannot participate in the whole protest, the second meeting point is the monument of Daniel O'Connell at the top of O’Connell Street, The third meeting point is by the Peony Court Chinese at Punches Cross and the fourth meeting point is by McDonald's at the Crescent Shopping Centre.