Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is constant and recurring overcrowding at the Limerick hospital and this is down to multiple factors. There is a deficiency in bed capacity and staffing. Bed capacity at Limerick runs at approximately 97%, when 85% is the maximum at which a hospital can work efficiently. This leads to poorer outcomes for patients and an increased incidence of cross-infection and hospital-acquired infection. The mid-west has a catchment area of 400,000 but it does not have the bed capacity or staffing to deal with that.

As Deputy Jan O'Sullivan noted, whole-time equivalent rates in the mid-west are 14% lower than the national figure. This leads to an increase in the standardised mortality rate in the mid-west. It is a shocking indictment of the health service that there is such disproportionality between one area and another. It comes down to retention and recruitment of staff across all hospitals in the region but also arises from deployment of consultants and medical staff across the model 2 and model 4 hospitals in the region. There is also a deficiency in funding primary care to allow patients to come out of hospital as quickly as possible and the funding of community intervention teams to assist discharge.

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