A DEMONSTRATION was held in the city last weekend to protest over the continued overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
Protesters walked to the gates of the hospital carrying banners and demanding an end to the overcrowding crisis and the continued cancellation of procedures and appointments.
Last Monday also marked the hospital being at the top of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s (INMO) national count of people waiting on trolleys for a bed for 77 out the last 100 weekdays.
The INMO counts patients who have been admitted to hospital but have not been moved off a trolley to an in-hospital bed. The count is taken only on weekdays.
Saturday’s demonstration follows a previous protest march in the city in January, which Gardaí estimated to be 11,000 strong.
Mike Daly Jr, whose father died in the hospital and a fresh inquest recently recorded a verdict of medical misadventure, said that little had changed at the hospital since the first protest in January.
“We’re trying to keep the momentum going,” he told the Irish Examiner. “The Government has to be held responsible.”
On several days over the last two weeks, UHL had in excess of 100 patients waiting on trolleys for a bed.
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheadhgha said the Department of Health and the HSE must stop treating “runaway hospital overcrowding as a surprise”.
“Post bank holiday backlogs are not new, they happen each time and it is clear that many hospitals are not preparing properly,” she said.
“Our members have made it clear they cannot continue to work in these conditions year-round with absolutely zero reprieve. Real, tangible action must be taken to radically reduce hospital overcrowding.”
Hospital management has repeatedly cited a shortage of bed spaces and growing demand on the emergency department services as the cause of the overcrowding.
