HSE confirms 'imminent' 96-bed block at University Hospital Limerick to help curb overcrowding

David Raleigh

The HSE announced on Monday that the opening of a newly constructed 96-bed block at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is “imminent”, as near-record patient overcrowding continues to plague the hospital.

There were 147 patients without a bed at UHL on Monday, including 54 patients on trolleys in the hospital’s Emergency Department and 93 on trolleys on wards, according to official figures published by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

A record 150 patients were recorded on trolleys at the hospital on February 7th, 2024.

Just yards from the overcrowded Limerick ED lies the first of three proposed 96-single-bed hospital blocks, which is expected to be opened in the coming days.

“We look forward to the imminent opening of the first 96-bed block at UHL,” HSE Mid West confirmed today.

The ED and wards at UHL are consistently the most overcrowded in the country, with demand from a catchment of over 400,000 that includes all of Limerick and Clare, north Tipperary, and parts of North Cork and north Kerry.

In 2009, 24-hour Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments at Clare General Hospital, Limerick Regional Hospital, St John’s Hospital and Nenagh Hospital were reconfigured to the Limerick Regional Hospital, later renamed University Hospital Limerick.

In 2017, a new ED was opened at UHL; however, it has not been able to cope with demand.

An inquest, held last year, into the death of UHL patient Aoife Johnston, in 2022, heard from doctors that the “gargantuanly overcrowded” ED was “like a death trap” on the weekend Aoife (16) presented there with queried sepsis amidst chronic patient overcrowding and understaffing.

Ms Johnston waited over 13 hours for life-saving medication that should have been administered to her within ten to fifteen minutes of her presenting at the hospital.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, responding to the current overcrowding at UHL, HSE Mid West said: “We apologise to all patients who are currently facing long waiting times for an inpatient bed.”

It said UHL was “experiencing record demand through the Emergency Department, with an increase of 11 per cent in attendances so far this year”.

This increase, it added, “is the highest increase in demand of any hospital in the country and compares to a national average increase of 4 per cent”.

“UHL has also had the highest ED admissions in the country this year - at 21,195 - which is 5 per cent greater than at the same point in 2024. Average daily ED attendance at UHL in 2025 has been 262, and daily presentations have exceeded 300 on 25 days.”

To try to mitigate pressure on UHL, HSE Mid West said it had “enhanced and expanded access to urgent care facilities as alternatives to the ED pathway”.

However, it is also clear that pressure is mounting on alternatives to the ED, as local injury units and GP-referral medical assessment units, at Nenagh Hospital, and St John’s Hospital, Limerick “are now managing approximately 1,300 patients per week”.

The HSE Mid West said it recently “lost access to 50 sub-acute/rehabilitation beds in the region” due to a new Community Nursing Unit, located in Nenagh, having to go through a “re-registration process with HIQA”. It added that the 50-bed long-term residential unit should commence before the end of this year.

Further patient-overcrowding mitigation measures included the opening of two new rapid-build 16-bed wards at UHL, with planning permission sought for a third 16-bed unit.

“To further improve access at UHL, additional consultants are rostered at weekends and bank holidays, and we are sincerely grateful to our healthcare teams for their tireless efforts to meet our current capacity challenges,” it added.

Today, Limerick Sinn Féin TD, Maurice Quinlivan, said that an additional hospital, including a second 24-hour emergency department, was required for the region.

“The UHL (University Hospital Limerick) group themselves have confirmed that at least an additional 400 beds are needed at UHL,” said Deputy Quinlivan.

“They have advised that 400 beds are the minimum and would not take account of any population growth in the mid west.”

“There simply isn’t the space at UHL for this volume of additional beds. These must be provided at a different location and at a new model three hospital.”

Deputy Quinlivan, along with his party colleague in Clare, Deputy Donna McGettigan, called for a Model 3 hospital to be constructed in Co Clare to take pressure off of UHL.

Deputy Quinlivan described the reconfiguration of emergency units to UHL as " catastrophic " and said it regularly has to suspend or cancel elective procedures.

“With the onset of winter, I fear we are in for a very difficult and probably impossible winter at the hospital,” he warned.

Deputy McGettigan said: “The need for an additional hospital in the Mid-West region is obvious, it is my view that an additional hospital is needed and that such a hospital should be based in County Clare.”