Conditions experienced by patients attending the Emergency Department (ED) of University Hospital Limerick (UHL) are ‘unacceptable' and the department is ‘not fit for purpose', the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has said.

It has just released a new report on services within the University of Limerick Hospitals group, which is made up of six hospitals. It reveals a number of serious patient safety concerns, however the ‘single most significant risk identified was the serious delays and risks for patients and staff due to persistent overcrowding in the ED of UHL'.

"HIQA believes the conditions experienced by patients attending the ED in UHL are unacceptable. The department was overcrowded and not fit for purpose; this resulted in significant compromises in maintaining adequate levels of environmental cleanliness, increased risk of healthcare associated infections, impeded access to patients for care and observation, and severely reduced patients' privacy and dignity," commented HIQA's director of regulation, Phelim Quinn.

The report notes that during an unannounced assessment, there were 37 patients waiting on trolleys at one point and space within the ED was ‘limited'. This made it difficult for staff to move around. Ill patients were cared for on trolleys in the communal areas and corridors of the department and they had ‘little or no privacy or dignity'.

Adequate cleaning of the ED was ‘impossible as floor space was largely taken up with trolleys' and there were no rooms for facilitating the isolation of patients with communicable diseases.

Furthermore, there was only one toilet in the main ED for all patients - adults and children - ‘including those with suspected or confirmed communicable diseases'.

"Other risks identified within the ED were delays in the admission of children to wards, while being accommodated in adult surroundings. This was despite the fact that a new children's area had been developed but remained unopened. At the same time, staff in all the region's local injuries units reported under-utilisation of their services," Mr Quinn noted.

The report also pointed out that there were delays in transferring patients from the ED to the intensive care unit (ICU) or high dependency unit (HDU).

The report identified a number of ‘specific actions requiring high priority that also require the support of the HSE nationally'.

Mr Quinn said that hospital staff who met with HIQA ‘are committed to providing good safe care and to improving the services'.

"The momentum witnessed locally must now continue and be supported by the HSE nationally in order to ensure patients in the region continue to receive safer, better care," he added.