71 people on trolleys waiting for admission at UHL

Louche Lad

Irish Times story: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/near-record-crowding-in-limerick-hospital-after-infection-outbreak-1.3993274

Edit: typo in title, that should be 76 people.

Car99

Louche Lad wrote: »

Irish Times story: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/near-record-crowding-in-limerick-hospital-after-infection-outbreak-1.3993274

And the actual figures on trolleys are higher except they move patients from A&E , admit them to wards and then let them on trolley on the wards rather than in A&E . The HSE has wonderful frontline staff but the running of it is a shambles .

Eire-Dearg

My mother was in there last weekend, thankfully for nothing too serious, and was there for nearly 12 hours. Her issue was minor and she could have been seen and checked out in a matter of minutes.

She was sent over by ShannonDoc, and apparently ShannonDoc was sending loads over that night for some reason, for the most minor of incidents. So maybe that's a factor that needs to be reviewed.

But it was so bad in there. No information. No estimated time. Very uncomfortable seating and no effort made to make her feel comfortable. She couldn't even change the channel on the TV to watch Up For The Match because there were no batteries in the remote

I would have expected more effort would have been made to analyse the severity of each person's issue, see how long it would take to look/release them, and work on it that way, so you've more turnover and not a load of people waiting around for very minor issues.

It seems an utter sh*t show, and unless you're outright bleeding or have broken bones, you're left to rot until your name is called.

Miike

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

My mother was in there last weekend, thankfully for nothing too serious, and was there for nearly 12 hours. Her issue was minor and she could have been seen and checked out in a matter of minutes.

She was sent over by ShannonDoc, and apparently ShannonDoc was sending loads over that night for some reason, for the most minor of incidents. So maybe that's a factor that needs to be reviewed.

But it was so bad in there. No information. No estimated time. Very uncomfortable seating and no effort made to make her feel comfortable. She couldn't even change the channel on the TV to watch Up For The Match because there were no batteries in the remote

I would have expected more effort would have been made to analyse the severity of each person's issue, see how long it would take to look/release them, and work on it that way, so you've more turnover and not a load of people waiting around for very minor issues.

It seems an utter sh*t show, and unless you're outright bleeding or have broken bones, you're left to rot until your name is called.

They use the Manchester Triage System in UHL. It scores people based on the severity of their illness and assigns a category from immediate action to non-urgent. The less severe your illness, the longer you wait. The more severe illnesses that present, the further back the line you go. It's not a bad system however the lack of adequate staffing and infrastructure makes this system lag. It's not possible to give people an estimated wait time short of getting out a magic ball, unfortunately. There simply isn't a remotely accurate way gauging a time interval. More turnover doesn't inherently mean better medicine and in this instance (A&E) would actually give way to substantially worse clinical outcomes.

If they reopened Nenagh and Ennis ED it would make a wild difference in the level of care provided by way of capacity and could slash waiting times for each category by 60-70%

Car99

I've seen it reported that UHL A&E has 400000 people in its catchment area. Is that the most of any individual hospital in the country?

lisasimpson

Or even if nenagh and Ennis were staffed properly to begin with. If Nenagh is shorted staffed and you present there after 3pm there is a good chance they will not look at you and just tell you to go to limerick. Theres is a certain part of North tipp where the paramedics can opt to take you to portloais. If they take 24 hr from portloais limerick will get even worse

Bicyclette

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

It seems an utter sh*t show, and unless you're outright bleeding or have broken bones, you're left to rot until your name is called.

If you have a simple fracture, you are better off waiting for St John's to open or heading to Galway.

When I broke my wrist one night, I had two options. Head out to the Regional and be seen the following morning at about 8.30am. Or strap it up, sleep in my own bed and be seen in St John's by 8.30am.

I chose the latter. The treatment in St John's is excellent and you will still be referred out to the Fracture Clinic in The Regional.

Mango Joe

UHL is gone really bad - A member of my extended family was in there recently and its horrific in there.

You would feel so sorry for anyone stuck in that situation, both the patients and their family members.

The Staff are I'm sure doing their best in the midst of it all - But how many of us are guilty of dismissing the issue as long as it doesn't affect us directly at the moment?

- Everyone has a stake in seeking an answer to this issue as we're all aging and are bound to end up there someday......

lisasimpson

Doesn't help theres a HSE recruitment ban due to the black hole in Dublin that needs to be paid for. Heard recently none of this years nursing graduates from UL have been offered HSE contracts

brendanwalsh

Limerick is quite literally the worst hospital in the country.

It is perpetually over subscribed and under staffed. Most of the front line staff are bursting their arses out there but the well trained Irish graduates don't last too long and generally take their discharge papers at the earliest opportunity. Unfortunately the gaps then become wider and more third world health care providers are parachuted in . The nurses marched and stamped their feet in January for a big payday and got it , but now the knock on is the pot is empty for the next few years. God help anyone getting sick cause soon there will be no doctors or nurses left to staff UHeLL.

kilburn

Both of my parents 76 (dementia) & 85 (heart issues) were in there in July.

One spent 24hrs on a trolley and the dementia patient spent 3 days on a trolley and was later transferred to the old big open ward with 12 or so beds, it really is the most horrible ward i have ever seen in my life.

FutureGuy

My mum (74 at the time) spent 4 days on a trolley in there a few years back.

Any time she ended up in A&E, it was a ****ing mess - she was completely dependant on oxygen and on 3 of the last 5 times she ended up there, she ran out of oxygen in the tank under her trolley mid-way through the night. Horrific.

She passed away in April. One of the small mercies is that she'll never have to go near the place again.

Miike

lisasimpson wrote: »

Doesn't help theres a HSE recruitment ban due to the black hole in Dublin that needs to be paid for. Heard recently none of this years nursing graduates from UL have been offered HSE contracts

and a memo from the CEO stating there is no embargo - we must communicate that. We're just not taking anyone on :pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:

johnnyryan89

They'd wanna get people who can actually clean the place. My mother was out there this year for awhile and moved from the A&E to a trolly in the corridor outside a ward waiting for a bed. The toilet on the corridor needed to be cleaned as someone pissed all over the seat, my brother asked about three or four cleaners about cleaning it and all he got was it's not my area and when someone finally did come they wiped it with a cloth and I shît you not he used the same cloth to clean the hand rails after using it to wipe up piss.

Finally there was a bed available but had to wait nearly half the day for someone to strip the bed and wipe it down. My sister actually started to do it herself until someone came along to do it and stripped the bed but left a half eaten sandwich under the floor and didn't bother cleaning up blood that was on the floor.

Louche Lad

News snippet on Live 95 FM: https://www.live95fm.ie/news/more-than-1,000-waiting-for-beds-at-uhl-in-august/

Marty1983

Is the hospital getting better or worse?