The Taoiseach has said that University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is funded to be fully staffed, as he was told that patients and workers did not feel its emergency department was safe.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said people regularly faced “chaos” at the emergency department, and that the hospital was in a “constant state of emergency” due to a lack of beds and staff.
The comments were made in the Dáil as an inquest was ongoing into the death of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston at the hospital in 2022.
The teenager waited 12 hours to be seen, after being referred to University Hospital Limerick’s emergency department with suspected sepsis.
Her parents have said that her condition deteriorated to such a degree during that time that they and other patients began advocating for her to be seen.
The inquest has been hearing evidence about how busy the hospital’s emergency department was on the night the teenager attended.
“There wasn’t even a trolley available for her,” Ms McDonald said during Leaders’ Questions on Wednesday.
“The senior house officer on duty that night has said that nursing staff were overwhelmed with patients seeking treatment. She said that staff were left in an impossible situation due to the severity of overcrowding.
“Staff shortages were a huge issue, and the doctor who said that the emergency department was not a safe environment for patients.”
Ms McDonald said that the hospital was short of “200 vital staff” due to the Government’s recruitment embargo, and that an extra 288 beds were also needed.
“The reality now is that staff, patients and the public in general feel very unsafe,” she said.
Mr Harris responded to say that he had checked with the HSE on Wednesday about staffing levels required and had been told “that the extension of safe staffing to EDs (emergency departments), to general and specialised medical and surgical settings, is fully funded”.
He said the budget for the hospital was €€382 million, which represented a 44 per cent increase in five years – the highest increase in funding for any hospital in the country.
He said he expected the delivery of safe staffing levels as a result, and would pursue that issue.
“Look, I fully accept there is a very serious situation in University Hospital Limerick, it would be simply not credible to suggest anything to the contrary,” he said.
“But I do need to say that against the backdrop of, I think, legitimate questions that do need to be asked in terms of the level of investment that has been made in that hospital.
“Staffing at the hospital has grown by over 1,100 since the end of December 2019. So over 2,800 staff to over 3,900 staff as of the end of February, that’s a 42% increase in staffing levels in the hospital.
“It includes very specifically 161 more doctors, 49 more hospital consultants, 433 more nurses and midwives, and 116 more health and social care professionals.
“University Hospital Limerick now has more emergency department consultants than any other emergency department in Ireland.”
Ms McDonald asked “if everything is as rosy as you portray”, why did UHL have the highest trolley count and why did employees raise concerns about a lack of staffing.
“The facts as they present on the ground is that the emergency department is not safe. People do not believe that the hospital is safe, and that is a huge problem,” she said.
Mr Harris responded, saying that “sometimes the impression is given the resources aren’t going into a hospital”.
“It isn’t a lack of budget. It isn’t a lack of a willingness to do more. But there is also a need to ask about ‘Hang on a second, when you put in that amount of additional investment into a hospital, why are we not seeing the improvements for patients?’ and that’s what the minister intends to get under the bonnet on,” he said.
An independent investigation is being led by retired chief justice Frank Clarke and will examine the circumstances surrounding Aoife’s death as well as the clinical and corporate governance of the hospital.
It is expected to produce a report by the end of next month, Mr Harris said.
An initial report found that overcrowding in UHL’s emergency department was “endemic”, and doctor and nurse staffing levels were “insufficient”.
