Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have raised the issue of University Hospital Limerick with the Minister on a number of occasions. I raised it in the previous Dáil at every opportunity. Unfortunately, there is an ongoing trolley crisis at the hospital, with 66 patients on trolleys there as we speak. In light of the alarming rise in Covid cases in my home city of Limerick, I am again really concerned about University Hospital Limerick. I am eager to hear from the Minister about the plans he and his Department have to manage the Covid and overcrowding issues at University Hospital Limerick. As the Minister will be aware, the 14-day incidence rate in Limerick has surpassed 2,000 per 100,000 of population, that is, one in every 50 people having Covid-19. Nearly 4,000 cases have been reported in Limerick since Christmas. These are startling numbers. Regrettably, some of these people contracted the virus and ended up in ICUs. Some of them will need access to ventilators.

I fear for the amazing staff of the University Hospital Limerick. As my colleague stated, they are exhausted. They tell me this every day I speak to them. They are already working under conditions of great strain. We already do not have enough beds for those who need them. In the first week of January, 254 patients were treated on trolleys - the highest number in the State - at the hospital. As already stated, there are 66 patients on trolleys in the hospital today. People being treated on trolleys is never acceptable but during a pandemic, it is dangerous. Overcrowding is exposing patients and staff to potential infections.

I have to ask the question that I asked in the previous Dáil. Is there a particular issue with the management of or what is going on in University Hospital Limerick because it consistently has the highest number of people on trolleys? We delivered the long-awaited 60-bed modular unit but it has not made an impact in the way we would have hoped. There is a plan to develop a 96-bed unit but that is only at the design stage. I ask the Minister to get his finger out and deliver that unit. I ask him to stop talking about this matter and to cut through whatever red tape is in the way. This unit needs to be built. It is not fair that people in Limerick will have to go through this hospital trolley crisis for years. The plan the Minister has in respect of the 96-bed unit will mean that the crisis will continue for a long number of years. I ask him to personally intervene in this matter. We are in the middle of a pandemic but our hospital in Limerick seems to be getting the worst of it.

See this speech in context