UHL management under fire in the Dáil

Mattie McGrath TD. Photo © Houses of the Oireachtas.

The Dáil has heard a call for management at University Hospital Limerick to step down.

The facility has regularly been the most overcrowded in the country according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

The Dooradoyle hospital serves patients in North Tipperary, Clare and Limerick.

Independent Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath accused the HSE of failing the people of the mid-west for years.

“The HSE is a failure – has failed badly Limerick people and the people of North Tipperary.

“I want to salute Councillor Seamie Morris on the work he does and the other people in Nenagh who resisted the closure of the A&E in Nenagh.

“We were told this would be the centre of excellence in Limerick – its chaotic, chaotic, chaotic.

“The trolley crisis is unimaginable there and the stress and trauma on staff on families and everybody else.

“We need a whole sea change here – we need a clean out of management and we need a re-evaluation. We need to re-open the perfect unit that’s in Nenagh.

Deputy McGrath also says people from north Tipperary are opting to go to the Emergency Department at Tipperary University Hospital due to the ongoing overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick

“Former Minister Máire Hoctor did her very best to keep Nenagh A&E open – she was hounded out of office by Deputy Kelly and others who attacked her at the time.

“We have to go back and revisit and open Nenagh A&E – perfect unit – open St John’s A&E again as an interim solution until we get a new building (in Limerick) that’s capable of dealing with the number of patients that go in there from North Tipp, from Limerick and from Clare and beyond.

“South Tipperary General has an overflow of people coming down now because they can’t get into Limerick and they’re afraid to go because of the trolley crisis.”