Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said on Friday that he is not ruling out the reopening of A&E units in the midwest region, which were closed in 2009, despite earlier telling reporters this was “impossible”.
When asked during a press briefing if he was definitely ruling out the reopening of the former A&E units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospital, the Taoiseach replied: “Yes, that’s definitely not the plan – when I talk to the doctors and the emergency doctors, and they are the ones we take our advice from when it comes to these matters, what they say to me is that we have too many emergency departments (EDs) in Ireland, and not too few.”
Mr Varadkar said “the trend in medicine and healthcare in Ireland and around the world” was going in the opposite direction of having EDs in every hospital and every county.
Mr Varadkar said that specialised treatment of cardiac, stroke and cancer patients had significantly improved in University Hospital Limerick (UHL), however, “the point is you can’t do that in every hospital or in every county and that’s why we need specialist centres like the ED here in Limerick”.
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Having the ED in UHL “is the right model”, the Taoiseach said. However, UHL is persistently overcrowded, despite its ED being replaced in 2017 with a €24 million state-of-the-art unit.
Mr Varadkar said that he was committed to “upgrading” Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s into “urgent care centres” but that “a full service ED where every disease can be treated and every emergency gets the best care possible, is impossible actually” in these hospitals.
However, Noleen Moran, of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign group, said when the group met privately with the Taoiseach in the South Court Hotel the group asked that the Government sanction the reopening of the region’s A&Es.
“He said he would never rule anything out, that’s the response he gave to us, he would never rule anything out,” Ms Moran said.
Conor Reidy, of the same campaign group, said Mr Varadkar told the meeting that, “after his experience with the Covid pandemic he is somebody who would never rule anything out, and so he did not give a definitive ‘no’ to reopening EDs in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s”.
When asked for clarification on the issue, a spokesman for the Taoiseach said “it is not the current plan”.
“As the Taoiseach had indicated, nothing is off the table until discussions have taken place with the incoming CEO of the HSE and the Minister for Health,” the spokesman said.
The campaign group said it was happy to have had an opportunity to speak directly with the Mr Varadkar but added that they “wanted action” and not words on how the Government was going to tackle the high levels of overcrowding at UHL.
Earlier, Mr Varadkar said that a 150-bed private hospital at Towlerton, Balllysimon, Co Limerick, to be operated by the Bon Secours Health System (BSHS), would open in 2025 to both public and private patients to help alleviate the trolley crisis at UHL.
Mr Varadkar also welcomed the construction of a 96-single bed block which is under way on the grounds of UHL. He said he supported proposals for a second 96-bed unit to further alleviate overcrowding.
The Taoiseach revealed that the HSE was “exploring” the idea of “purchasing Barrington’s Hospital”, located in the city centre, for use as a “surgical diagnostic hub” after the BSHS vacates the building.
He acknowledged the region was “under pressure in terms of health” but there was now a “definite pathway forward for additional bed capacity”.
UHL has “very big problems with overcrowding and the patients don’t get the kind of care they deserve or are entitled to”.
Seriously ill patients waiting for hours on trolleys was “sad” and “not acceptable” he said, as it “can result in reduced patient outcomes as well as reduced dignity and privacy”.
“However, once you get through the access problems and get a bed, people get a really high standard of care here,” Mr Varadkar.
In 2019, Melanie Sheehan Cleary’s daughter Eve Cleary (21), from Limerick, died in UHL of cardiac arrest due to having blood clots. She spent 17 hours on a trolley without being assessed for blood clots despite presenting with several risk factors, her inquest heard.
Ms Sheehan Cleary, who met the Taoiseach Friday with several others whose families had been impacted by overcrowding at UHL, said Mr Varadkar pledged to “look into” a request she made for a third party investigation into the circumstances surrounding her daughters care at UHL.
Eve Cleary’s inquest recorded a verdict of medical misadventure and that there were “missed opportunities” in her case.
“I found the Taoiseach to be extremely warm, where Eve’s story was concerned, I’ve always looked for an outside investigation into my daughter’s death, and he assured me he will look into it, so I’m hopeful that something good for our family will come out of this and we will get some peace, Eve’s death has changed our lives completely,” Ms Sheehan Cleary said.