Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

As we prepare for a general election tomorrow, leadership has never been more important and critical to our nation.

There has been many debates and interviews with the party leaders over the past few weeks.

I listen tentatively when they discuss University Hospital Limerick as UHL directly impacts my loved ones and the loved ones of most people I know.

UHL is my local hospital, it’s my hometown and adopted hometown’s local hospital.

When asked, do the Mid West need another Accident and Emergency department, the reply is that government are waiting on the HIQA report (Health Information and Quality Authority).

This has been the reply from the Taoiseach, Tànaiste and Minister for Health – they literally use the same words.

The HIQA report is due in the summer of 2025 – 6 months away!

We were waiting for more beds and staff and now we are waiting for the HIQA report.

We seem to be always waiting for UHL Accident and Emergency to improve.

Here’s my suggestion to government on how they could make a quicker decision on whether the Mid West needs another Accident and Emergency department.

You could take your loved one in to University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency and see how long you wait for medical care.

Talk to the staff who are so caring and brilliant at their jobs yet cannot work to the best of their ability due to the incredibly challenging environment. I know many people working in UHL, they are all excellent at their jobs – respectful, immensely kind, caring and committed to their patients and to making UHL better.

Yet UHL doesn’t show the same respect, care and commitment to them.

See how your loved one is treated, how long they wait to be seen, to be triaged, to get bloods taken, to get blood results, to get x-rayed, to have other tests, to get a trolley.

Placing patients on trolleys in the corridors of University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency has become so normalised that there are markings on the floor for where the trolleys should be parked!

See how long you wait to be seen by a doctor – wait 10 hours, wait 12 hours, wait 24 hours.

These are not outliers – these times are the norm and you might be waiting much longer for the medical care you need.

Watch your loved one lie on a trolley in pain and discomfort (if they are lucky enough to get a trolley), watch their dignity diminish as their personal space is limited to the size of a trolley, watch their discomfort increase as their trolley is pushed back and forth when people need to get by, watch them wait to use unisex toilets that are unhygienic, watch them try to get something to eat and drink especially if they don’t have someone with them that can get food and drink for them.

When your loved one isn’t getting the medical attention they need, you could try asking the nurses and doctors to help you.

All of the medical staff are run off their feet and cannot get to your loved one.

You might get really frustrated out of worry and care for your loved one.

The nurses and doctors are so kind to you yet they cannot get to see your loved one as there are too many more serious cases that take priority.

You will reassure your loved one that they will get seen by a doctor soon yet you don’t know when.

You will wait.

Your loved one’s health will decline.

You will wait.

Your loved one’s health will further decline.

You will wait.

Your loved one’s health will continue to decline.

You will wait.

Some loved ones will get the medical care they need.
Some won’t.

This unfortunately is a fact in University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency.

Let me repeat that.

Some loved ones will get the medical care they need.
Some won’t.

I’ve been in University Hospital Limerick Accident and Emergency many times over the past few years and my humble opinion is that you need another Accident and Emergency department in the Mid West.

You needed another Accident and Emergency department in the Mid West the day you downgraded Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s (Limerick) hospitals in 2009 – 15 years ago.

You know this and we know this.

Yet you are all happy and united in waiting for a HIQA report – 6 months away.

This is insanity at it’s best.

I’ve never seen anything as poorly run as UHL Accident and Emergency.

It is the most chaotic and dangerous work environment for patients and medical staff that I have ever seen.

Yet we wait.

We wait for the HIQA report.

We wait for the government to make a decision.

We wait, just like the patients in UHL Accident and Emergency, who may or may not get the medical care they need.

We wait.

Simon Harris (Taoiseach), Micheàl Martin (Tànaiste) and Stephen Donnelly (Minister for Health) will never need to take their loved ones to UHL Accident and Emergency.

It’s not their local hospital.

Maybe their decisions would be treated with more urgency if they did!