Tipperary councillor calls on TDs to get together and seek meeting on trolley crisis

A Tipperary county councillor has called for Tipperary TDs to call a meeting with health bosses so they can explain what is happening with trolley numbers in University Hospital Limerick.

“Trolley numbers at Limerick are the worst in the country,” Cllr Seamus Morris told Nenagh Municipal District Council. “They have not improved since Christmas.”

He said there had been an expectation of improvements when the new pathway to ED was unveiled and Nenagh Hospital’s Medical Assessment Unit could take certain patients.

However, Cllr Morris said this was not working as the MAU closed at 4pm and ambulances still had to take patients to Limerick.

“What is happening at UHL is an utter disgrace,” he said.

The Independent councillor maintained that Tipperary’s TDs had “gone to ground” over the issue.

He called on local TDs to call a meeting in order for an emergency meeting to be held with University Hospital Limerick chiefs.

“People are dying and the system is not working,” he said.

Cllr Morris was backed by Cllr John Carroll, who said people who had gone to University Hospital Limerick well were now coming unwell.

“The buck stops with the Oireachtas members who signed up to it (reconfiguration),” he said. “And the Oireachtas members are going to have to deal with it to unblock it.”