Next summer, the UK’s health service overseer, The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), is set to present the Government with a report. The report will examine whether the centralisation of emergency department (ED) services at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) in the midwest should persist. The inspection of the immediate and emergency healthcare in the region was instructed by Stephen Donnelly, the Health Minister, to Hiqa in May. Hiqa, an independent body that regulates health and social care, was tasked with deliberating on the need for an additional ED within the midwest region, taking into account population increases and the strain on the current ED at UHL, which has dealt with extensive overcrowding in recent times.
The review’s guidelines were issued by Hiqa this Wednesday. Following a review by the Health Service Executive and a previous report by Hiqa, EDs in smaller midwest hospitals, such as Ennis and Nenagh, were closed years ago, centralising services at UHL. On Wednesday, Hiqa asserted that the prior centralisation of emergency services at UHL had estimated a requirement of 267 new beds, however, this investment did not materialise prior to the assimilation due to fiscal constraints.
In the period of 2020-2021, Hiqa confirmed the provision of a new ED, a critical care block and 98 new beds at UHL. There are ongoing plans for the construction of two more 96-bed blocks, with one already in the advanced stages. The Government’s hospital expansion plan, which was disclosed earlier this year, has also earmarked additional beds for UHL.
Hiqa further disclosed that since 2019, UHL has had an increase of 1,200 staff members. “As such, the total effect of the cumulative infrastructure investments on mitigating overcrowding at UHL is still unknown at the commencement of this review. The aim of this review is to identify any additional requirements that surpass what has been supplied or is in the process of being supplied.” Hiqa also highlighted the 13.7 per cent population growth from 2014 to 2023, during the same period, the population ages 65 and older escalated by 37 per cent.
The forthcoming review by Hiqa will take into account the suggestions of an unreleased report by ex-chief justice Frank Clarke probing the circumstances of Aoife Johnston’s death due to sepsis in the UHL’s ED in December 2022. Hiqa disclosed that the review will establish the existing evidence-driven best practices for the creation and provision of crucial and emergency medical services, implemented on a countrywide level within similar health services.
It was stated that a thorough stakeholder engagement strategy will be crafted and put into action, engaging significant interested groups, including regional and national patients and healthcare practitioners. Hiqa also mentioned that an independent specialised assessment of the present and anticipated population need for urgent and emergency health services in the midwest area will also be executed.