THE Health Information and Quality Authority is to stage inspections at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) as part of an investigation into the hospital’s record-breaking trolley crisis.
Junior Health Minister Mary Butler has confirmed that the health agency has written to HSE management to highlight their intention to initiate inspections under the national standards for safe and better healthcare.
Speaking in the Dáil, he called for hospital management to step down and for an audit on hospital structures and practices to be put in place.
Minister Butler said that the escalation plan for the hospital is in place and that this involves measures such as doctors making extra rounds to discharge patients who are ready to go home and patients who are suitable being transferred to level two hospitals.
A spokesperson for HIQA told the Limerick Post that they had been engaging with both University Hospital Limerick and UL Hospitals Group on overcrowding in the hospital over the past year.
“HIQA has engaged with the HSE at a national level to seek clarity around how it intends to address this situation over the medium term.
“HIQA continues to monitor the issue of overcrowding, and its impact on patients, across the country. HIQA is preparing to launch a new inspection programme in public acute hospitals in the coming weeks to assess compliance with the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare,” the spokesperson added.
