Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will again bring up the matter of the HIQA report into overcrowding in the emergency department, ED, at UHL. There are 88 patients on trolleys there today, which is the same number as that on 15 March when HIQA carried out its report. UHL needs serious help at a national level. We have the second highest number in throughput of ED patients, yet we have the lowest number, relatively, of acute beds. That is a very important statistic. The Minister for Health set up, and asked the HSE to put in place, an expert team at UHL. That team concluded its review on 10 June. We now need to see HSE corporate stepping in to help UHL. It needs help. I need the Taoiseach to stand behind that proposition and these measures. I ask that the action plan now being brought forward by the review team in the HSE nationally be implemented immediately in UHL. It has very hard-working staff but we have serious problems there.

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