Limerick Regional Hospital on the verge of meltdown

[making waves]

NURSES HAVE called on HSE management in the midwest to implement the region’s major disaster plan because of widespread overcrowding at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation yesterday said the hospital was unsafe, with “96 additional inpatients above the normal capacity of approximately 350 inpatient beds”. The union said the hospital was facing huge pressure and urged local GPs to attend the hospital to provide assistance.

Nurses call for disaster plan for Mid-Western - The Irish Times - Wed, Feb 08, 2012

I was in Limerick Regional A&E in September spending three nights on a trolly. The situation at the time was chaotic forcing nurses onto a series of one-day strikes.

I was also in A&E yesterday - the situation had deteriorated so much it is barely describable. Patients were everywhere - on trollies, wheelchairs and ordinary chairs. The waiting room was packed by midday with a waiting time to see a doctor of 4-6 hours or longer for many patients. One teenage girl came into A&E crying inconsolably in pain. She had to wait for more than 90 minutes to be seen by a nurse. The girl was still crying in pain 10 hours later. Her mother told me that she had seen a doctor 7 hours earlier and had been seen by any doctor or nurse after that. A consultant came in shortly afterwards reading the riot act because the girl had been left in such a distressing state. The problem was that because the service is now stretched so thin there was no one availble to help this girl.

Doctors, nurses and orderlies were running around A&E trying to contain the chaos. Relatives were completely at the end of their rope with the inability of the system to cope. Tempers got frayed on more than one occasions.

The governments decision to shut A&Es in Ennis and Nenagh and the health cutbacks in general are clearly having a massive effect on the hospital. Remember this is before further chaos that is going to be caused by the governments attempt to cut public sector numbers through their chaotic early retirement scheme. I agree with Dr. Gerry Burke of Limerick Maternity and having experienced the situation at first hand yesterday I believe it is inevitable that at some point these cuts will cause the deaths of patients.

[drummed]

Have they a nuclear reactor we don't know about?
If not i'd say there'll be no "meltdown".

[making waves]

Have they a nuclear reactor we don't know about?
If not i'd say there'll be no "meltdown".

Stop being so bloody facetious - I hope you never end up in the place.

[drummed]

So you stop posting political point scoring/scaremongering threads then and we'll call it quits, ok?

[Gimpanzee]

Stop being so bloody facetious - I hope you never end up in the place.

The man has a point. If you avoided that sort of language and simply reported what you saw your op would be far more effective.

[firefly123]

But.. But.. It's a centre of excellence!


This is the default condition of most ED's these days. Hell I get stuck in them for hours because there is no trolley for my patient and I can't really dump them off my ambulance trolley onto the floor. It's not uncommon for 5 or 6 ambulances to be stuck in a single ED for hours.

[Toman13]

NURSES HAVE called on HSE management in the midwest to implement the region’s major disaster plan because of widespread overcrowding at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation yesterday said the hospital was unsafe, with “96 additional inpatients above the normal capacity of approximately 350 inpatient beds”. The union said the hospital was facing huge pressure and urged local GPs to attend the hospital to provide assistance.

Nurses call for disaster plan for Mid-Western - The Irish Times - Wed, Feb 08, 2012

I was in Limerick Regional A&E in September spending three nights on a trolly. The situation at the time was chaotic forcing nurses onto a series of one-day strikes.

I was also in A&E yesterday - the situation had deteriorated so much it is barely describable. Patients were everywhere - on trollies, wheelchairs and ordinary chairs. The waiting room was packed by midday with a waiting time to see a doctor of 4-6 hours or longer for many patients. One teenage girl came into A&E crying inconsolably in pain. She had to wait for more than 90 minutes to be seen by a nurse. The girl was still crying in pain 10 hours later. Her mother told me that she had seen a doctor 7 hours earlier and had been seen by any doctor or nurse after that. A consultant came in shortly afterwards reading the riot act because the girl had been left in such a distressing state. The problem was that because the service is now stretched so thin there was no one availble to help this girl.

Doctors, nurses and orderlies were running around A&E trying to contain the chaos. Relatives were completely at the end of their rope with the inability of the system to cope. Tempers got frayed on more than one occasions.

The governments decision to shut A&Es in Ennis and Nenagh and the health cutbacks in general are clearly having a massive effect on the hospital. Remember this is before further chaos that is going to be caused by the governments attempt to cut public sector numbers through their chaotic early retirement scheme. I agree with Dr. Gerry Burke of Limerick Maternity and having experienced the situation at first hand yesterday I believe it is inevitable that at some point these cuts will cause the deaths of patients.

Think of what it would be like in the North-West.

[feedmelies]

Have they a nuclear reactor we don't know about?
If not i'd say there'll be no "meltdown".

The fallout of underclass rowdy limerick people will have a catastrophic effect on the surrounding area. It will be akin to Fukushima as the fallout could reach Dublin as displaced scroungers search for handouts.

[bboruimhe]

As I understand it, they closed Ennis General and the overflow of patients flooded Limerick immediately.

We will be trying to cope with the damage done to this country by Ahern and his crew for generations to come.

[drummed]

The fallout of underclass rowdy limerick people will have a catastrophic effect on the surrounding area. It will be akin to Fukushima as the fallout could reach Dublin as displaced scroungers search for handouts.

It's the farmland i'm worried about. Nuclear fallout would be a disaster.