University Hospital Limerick Declare A Major Internal Incident Due To ED Attendances.

Management at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), latter providing medical services to North Tipperary, have declared a major internal incident, due to the record high attendances at its Emergency Department (ED) today.

A spokesperson for the hospital has stated that patients attending UHL ED with non-emergency care will face an exceptionally long wait before receiving any necessary care, due to the massive surge in patients experiencing respiratory infections, including Covid-19, Flu and Respiratory Syncytial Virus infection (RSV)

Less acutely unwell patients are being asked to first consider Injury Units; GPs; out-of-hours GP services; and pharmacists before attending at UHL’s hospital emergency department.

In order to try to address the worsening situation at the hospital, UHL has sent out an S.O.S call for off-duty staff to return and present themselves to the hospital for work duty; while additional surge beds are being opened at hospitals in Ennis Co. Clare; Nenagh Co. Tipperary, and in St. John’s Co. Limerick.

Day beds at University Hospital Limerick are also being converted to inpatient beds, with a renewed focus on discharging current patients.

All outpatient appointments at UHL, scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, January 3rd, have been cancelled and only urgent elective surgery will be undertaken over the coming days.

Note: Injury Units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s will continue to operate as normal, while all visiting to UHL is now severely restricted, to parents of children, those visiting patients who are critically unwell and those assisting confused patients (e.g. dementia).

The National Ambulance Service (NAS) have also been asked to divert some patients to other acute hospitals, in an effort to support the extreme levels of demand at UHL.