The HSE’s being urged to re-examine the further reconfiguration of hospital services in Ennis Limerick and Nenagh given the chronic overcrowding at all 3 emergency departments in recent weeks.
Nursing staff are questioning how much further the process, which was set up to improve the delivery of patient care across the Midwest, can go, given the A&E overcrowding has lead to trolleys being placed on in patient wards in both Ennis and Limerick.
That practice has now been suspended at Dooradoyle after staff and management agreed to a de-escalation plan which includes leaving 40 beds free for the emergency overflow.
In the coming weeks the Health Minister expected to announce up to fifty new beds for Ennis General which is hoped will ease overcrowding, something Mary Fogerty, Mid West spokesperson for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation welcomes.
