THERE has been a marked drop in the numbers of admitted patients waiting on trolleys for a bed in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) since the opening of the new 96-bed block on October 13.
For most of 2025 and much of 2024, there were more than 100 patients every weekday waiting for a hospital bed in the UHL emergency department (ED) and overflow wards, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Trolley Watch.
The Limerick hospital was consistently the most overcrowded in the country, according to those figures.
Since the new block was opened last month, the numbers left waiting for a bed have dropped massively to between 53 and 67 patients per day.
There have been three days since October 13 when UHL has not been the most overcrowded in the country.
This sees a marked improvement given that, according to INMO figures, there had been only two days in the entire previous year where that achievement was reported.
Limerick Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan stated that the recent drop in trolley numbers at UHL is welcome.
The Limerick TD was commenting following the release of INMO Trolley Watch figures for the month of October.
The figures show that 1,742 people were treated on trolleys at UHL across the month, a drop of 136 compared to October 2024 (1,876).
On a monthly basis however, UHL was still the most overcrowded.
Deputy Quinlivan said the drop “shows some progress finally being made on the capacity issues facing University Hospital Limerick. We need to ensure that these levels of trolley numbers fall much further. No one should be treated in a hospital corridor or on a chair in a modern European hospital.”
The Limerick TD said that “this must serve as a starting point for the delivery of world class healthcare that the people of the Mid West region deserve. Too often in the past the capacity challenges and emergency department overcrowding have had lethal consequences for patients. We can never return to those days.”
He called for the second 96-bed unit – which was given the planning green light the same week hat the first block was opened – to be expedited and delivered promptly.
Deputy Quinlivan also called for all three of the recommendations made in the recent HIQA report on emergency healthcare in the Mid West to be implemented.
The HIQA report, published on September 30, made three recommendations: the onsite expansion at UHL’s Dooradoyle campus; expansion offsite but close-by the Dooradoyle site; and the development of an additional Mode 3 hospital in the Mid-West with an additional ED.