More than 30 beds 'empty' nearby as University Hospital Limerick struggles to cope with patients on trolleys
As University Hospital Limerick struggled to cope with a record 92 patients on trolleys, 33 beds lay empty nearby, it has been claimed.The Fine Gael representative, who lost his Dail seat in the 2016 General Election, said he understood up to 18 beds were still vacant in St John’s at 5pm.
Mr O’Donnell said the “completely unacceptable” situation called into question bed management strategy. He added: “I have spoken directly with the Minister for Health Simon Harris on this critical matter” In emails sent on Monday night to HSE chief operations officer Anne O’Connor and national director of HSE acute operations Liam Woods, Mr O’Donnell sought “an immediate explanation as to why up to 33 beds were vacant at St John’s Hospital on Monday, January 6, at 9.30am when we have an ongoing bed capacity crisis at UHL”. He called on the HSE to “maximise the use of current resources across the UL Hospitals Group which includes UHL, St John’s, Croom, Nenagh [Co Tipperary] and Ennis [Co Clare]”.
Mr O’Donnell said he found it “difficult to fathom” how 33 beds lay idle at St John’s while UHL was in the middle of a bed capacity crisis.
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