Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I am looking for an update on the second model 4 hospital for Limerick and the mid-west. University Hospital Limerick is in the news nearly every day of the week. Unfortunately it sends out the wrong message for families and patients who need to attend the hospital. While there are an awful lot of things that work excellently there, the accident and emergency unit is too small for the size of the region. The population is growing and we need a second hospital. I know HIQA was carrying out a report and I am asking for information or an update on that.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I have been asked by the Minister for Health to respond on the Senator's Commencement matter this morning. I thank the Senator for the opportunity to address the House on hospital provision in the mid-west region.

The mid-west currently has one model 4 hospital, namely, University Hospital Limerick, and three model 2 hospitals. In 2013 the smaller hospitals framework defined the activities that can be performed in the smaller model 2 hospitals in a safe, sustainable, and efficient manner. The framework ensures that patients who require emergency or complex planned care are managed safely in a larger hospital environment, such as UHL. Model 2 hospitals such as those in Ennis and Nenagh provide inpatient medical beds, medical assessment units, injury units and day surgery. St. John's Hospital is classified as a model 2S hospital and can carry out intermediate surgery and day case surgery. The model 2 hospitals play a pivotal role in the delivery of safe, high-quality patient care in the mid-west. They accept transfers of appropriate patients from UHL. These patients can either be stepped down from an inpatient ward or, where a clinician has decided it is appropriate, transferred directly from the emergency department, ED.

In May 2024, HIQA was requested by the then Minister for Health to conduct a review of urgent and emergency care in the mid-west region with the primary objective of ensuring safe, quality acute care. As part of this review, HIQA was requested to consider the case for a second ED in the context of the population changes in recent years and ongoing pressures at the ED at University Hospital Limerick. HIQA submitted an interim briefing on 28 February 2025 and the report was published on the Department of Health website on 19 March. The interim briefing provides a progress update on the various workstreams of the ongoing work programme. The final report of the review is expected by the end of May 2025. This report will contain advice for the Minister, informed by the evidence compiled across the various workstreams, to support decision-making around the design and delivery of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the mid-west region.The review is ongoing against a backdrop of continued investment in the capacity and reform of the mid-west health system, particularly at University Hospital Limerick. In December 2024 a fast-track 16-bed inpatient block opened at University Hospital Limerick. Another 16-bed unit is due to open in June and a 96-bed block will be delivered by September. Enabling works are also under way for a second 96-bed block. In total, including further beds planned for the acute hospital inpatient bed capacity expansion plan, up to 308 new beds will be opened at University Hospital Limerick by 2028.

This expansion is supported by the increase in staffing and hospital reforms. Whole-time equivalent staffing at the hospital has grown by 43% since December 2019. That is 255 more doctors and consultants and 455 more nurses and midwives across the mid-west region. Fewer patients are now waiting on waiting lists, with a total reduction of 30% from December 2021 to March of this year. The Government will continue to focus on delivering the necessary reforms and improvements in health services for the mid-west region.

Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Minister of State. One can but hope. In regard to the report at the end of May, we cannot envisage what is going to be in that report. However, the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, visited the hospital on Good Friday on a spot check. It was busy, but that was a quiet busy. I hope that a new model 4 hospital will be delivered for the region. We only have one hospital and it is actually the busiest hospital in the whole country per capita. Hopefully, that is in the report. I thank the Minister of State for laying out the work that has been done to date. I am looking forward to much more work into the future in order that patients will have a safe experience and also the staff working there will be safe. They work under acute circumstances. They work really hard.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The people of the mid-west region deserve access to responsive and safe urgent and emergency care. The Government is delivering improvements through a combination of increased capacity and reform. These reforms are seeking to increase acute capacity and, where appropriate, divert people away from the emergency department to more suitable services. Overall, 572 new inpatient beds will be delivered in the mid-west region from 2020 to 2031. Site works have been commenced on the new Limerick surgical hub for elective procedures. Opening hours have been extended at the medical assessment units in Ennis and Nenagh hospitals from 8 a.m. until midnight, expanding the service availability across the region. Local injury units are accepting patients 12 hours a day, seven days a week, at St. John's, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals. As part of HIQA’s review, the ESRI has been commissioned to conduct national and regional demand and capacity reviews. There has been a high level of public interest in the process with 1,121 submissions being received during the six-week public consultation. As part of the stakeholder engagement workstream, the final report of the HIQA review will inform future decision-making around the design and delivery of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the mid-west as requested by the Minister for Health.

I met the Minister one day when she was on her way to Cork to inspect University Hospital Cork. She is passionate about getting more consultants working over the weekends, particularly at bank holiday weekends. In some hospitals where there is an excellent rota in place, there is a greatly reduced number of people on trolleys.