*Ennis Hospital was on the agenda during the meeting.
MEMBERS of Friends of Ennis Hospital on Wednesday morning met with representatives from the HIQA review team where they said the provision of a model four hospital in Ennis should also include a maternity wing.
Ex Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly (FF) last May commissioned a review by HIQA into emergency care capacity in the Mid-West region. This review is tasked with determining there is a need for a second emergency department in the Mid-West.
Sean Egan who is heading up the review for HIQA met Angela Coll, Deirdre Culligan and Marion O’Reilly from Friends of Ennis Hospital (FEH) on Wednesday for a seventy minute meeting. He was joined by John Tuffy who has completed inspections at University Hospital Limerick and Maeve Sheehan. FEH made a submission to the HIQA review in August with a thirty page document.
Speaking to The Clare Echo following the meeting, Angela Coll described it as “very interesting and productive”. They presented data included in their submission plus new information collated in the final quarter of 2024 and the first six weeks of this year, they also discussed the provision of services in Clare including the local injury unit, medical assessment unit and Shannondoc while advocating for additional hours and beds.
“Our focus was mainly on acute hospital services,” Angela outlined. New findings discussed included that University Hospital Limerick (UHL) operated at 120 percent capacity in January 2025 when the recommended level is 85 percent. UHL had the highest average daily attendance at an emergency department of any acute hospital in the country in 2024 with a daily average of 240 attendances.
In the month of December, Ennis Hospital operated at an average of 115 percent occupancy when surge beds were in use for twenty eight of thirty one days that month.
Data strengthens the cause for choosing Ennis as the location for a second ED in the region, Angela argued. “Friends of Ennis Hospital are committed to fighting for a safe health service for the Mid-West, which is why we know and understand that an emergency department cannot be opened in any of the current Model 2 hospitals in the HSE Midwest Region. We also appreciate that the population profile of the Mid-West, even with the approx. 500,000 predicted population over the next 10-15 years, is not sufficient to justify the re-opening of the three emergency departments which closed in 2009 either from a cost perspective or a patient safety one to say nothing of the difficulty in recruiting back staff for three additional emergency departments.
“Therefore, the logical choice is one additional emergency department and the decision then becomes where. We know from data provided at the Regional Health Forum previously that 24.71 percent of patients who presented in the ED in UHL were from Clare whereas Limerick was understandably much higher at 59.18% and Tipperary patients accounted for 11.18%. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that the presentations in Galway University Hospital would be improved if Clare had its own ED as we are aware of Clare based patients who have travelled to Galway to avoid Limerick. This data, together with the population profiles, and the greater distance from the ED for patients from Clare indicates to us that the second ED should be in Clare as that is where more people live and that is where 40% of the population live more than 45 minutes from an Emergency Department”.
After consultations with a quantity surveyor and an engineer at the end of 2024, FEH were told the site of Ennis Hospital “is not large enough to provide the kind of hospital that would be needed to give a proper health service to the people of Clare for the next fifty years and beyond”.
A new model four in Ennis Hospital should also include a maternity wing, FEH have now said. “When a new hospital is built in the Midwest the current UHL facility will be under less pressure for space and logically the maternity hospital currently located on the Ennis Road should be moved to the Dooradoyle campus. Co-location of maternity hospitals with acute hospital services will lead to better outcomes for both mothers and babies. However, if the HSE plan to move maternity services to Dooradoyle we feel that the new Model 4 in Ennis should include a maternity wing.
“In 2022, over 1200 babies were born in Limerick to mothers who have a place of residence in Clare. If we assume that Sligo covers all births for Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim that is a total of 1772, Cavan and Monaghan combined is 1826, Laois/Offaly 1857 yet again the HSE wants to put 3620 mothers from Clare and Limerick through one hospital, that is more than any other hospital in Rural Ireland, only Dublin and Cork are higher. So, if we assume that all stakeholders are committed to the provision of the best possible and safest health service for all of the population then that means long term planning for a Model 4 with a maternity hospital for Co Clare,” Coll concluded.
