The hospital was operating at 105% capacity on the day of Hiqa's unannounced inspection in February.
AN UNANNOUNCED INSPECTION of University Hospital Limerick carried out in February by the Health Information and Quality Authority found that the hospital improved since a previous inspection but that overcrowding was still a consistent issue.
However, the emergency department remained very overcrowded with 72 patients on trolleys and chairs awaiting an inpatient bed, during the inspection on 21 and 22 February.“This level of overcrowding continued to impact on the privacy and dignity of patients despite the best efforts of staff – albeit a number of the risk issues Hiqa found in 2022 had been addressed.”
“It does say there have been some improvements and some reduction in waiting time and improvement in staff numbers. But there’s still a big mismatch between the massive demand for the hospital in the Mid-west and its capacity.”In January, a “major internal incident” was announced as UHL became overhwhelmed with patient numbers.
Findings from the inspection for other areas of the hospital were more positive, with eight out of 11 national standards assessed found to be either compliant or substantially compliant.
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