UNIVERSITY Hospital Limerick has refuted claims that they have not been using the capacity provided from a buy-out of private hospital beds.
In a statement to the Limerick Post the hospital has stoutly denied claims that it closed wards during the pandemic.
In a posting on its Facebook page, the Mid West Hospital Campaign group claimed that the hospital did not make full use of the 50 extra beds available in the Bon Secours private hospital while patients waited on trolleys for a need.
According to the post, 50 beds were available at the hospital between April 14 and May 25, amounting to 2,100 bed nights during that 42 day period.
“Only eight beds were occupied during this time leaving a surplus of 2,092 empty beds.”
The post pointed to a number of factors exacerbating the situation “not least the closure of most wards in all hospitals and in particular at UHL which closed down earlier than most, the cancellation of all but the most urgent surgeries and the cancellation of outpatient clinics.”
In a statement to the Limerick Post, a UHL spokesman said that “no wards were closed at UHL during the pandemic. Elective activity was considerably curtailed and theatre staff redeployed to areas such as critical care, which was expanded considerably in response to Covid-19.
“At 8am on Monday June 8, there were 37 patients in the emergency department of whom 23 were waiting for a bed. There are 49 single rooms/cubicles/bays within the emergency department. No admitted patients were waiting on trolleys on corridors in the emergency department then or on any other day since the new pathways were established. Nor have any patients been waiting on trolleys on ward corridors at UHL during the pandemic
“We continue to use Bons Secours Limerick for a range of medical and surgical services, including the warfarin clinic, outpatient clinics in ophthalmology and neurology, day procedures in ENT, ophthalmology, urology, dermatology and pain management, in addition to investigations and day procedures in cardiology, breast, and gynaecology.
“Additional work in ENT and urology is also scheduled to proceed this week in the Bons Secours Cork and the Mater Private,” the UHL spokesman concluded.
