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Reductions in Day Surgery Remain in Place in Ennis and Nenagh Next Week

  • Day surgery remains cancelled at Ennis and Nenagh hospitals
  • Limited elective surgery resumes at UHL, St John’s and Croom
  • Seven-Day Opening of Nenagh and St John’s Medical Assessment Units

(LIMERICK 13.01.2023): DAY surgery at Ennis and Nenagh hospitals has been cancelled for the week commencing Monday January 16th as both hospitals have opened additional capacity for inpatients.

This comes amid a wave of respiratory illnesses in the Mid-West and around the country that continues to put pressure on hospital and community health services.

A meeting of the Hospital Crisis Management Team this Friday confirmed that limited elective surgery can resume from next Monday, January 16th at University Hospital Limerick, St John’s Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. Patients will be contacted directly to confirm attendance.

We regret that day surgery at Ennis and Nenagh is again cancelled next week. Patients affected by these cancellations will be contacted directly by our staff.

Outpatient clinics and endoscopy at Ennis and Nenagh continue as scheduled and patients are advised to attend for their appointments.

Outpatient clinics are also running as scheduled at UHL, St John’s, Croom and University Maternity Hospital Limerick.

All our hospitals are operating above capacity and staff remain on high alert amid a surge of respiratory infection in the community that has not yet reached its peak.

As a temporary measure, medical assessment units at St John’s and Nenagh hospitals have moved from a five to a seven-day week to allow for additional GP referrals for medical assessment. Ennis Hospital MAU already operates seven days per week. Members of the public are reminded that patients cannot be seen at our MAUs without a referral.

There has been a reduction in the numbers presenting to ED in recent days. In spite of this, and the measures taken to ease pressure on the hospital system, services remain under pressure and our advice to the public remains to consider all healthcare options before attending our ED. Patients who are seriously injured or unwell or who are worried their life is in danger must dial 112/999 or attend the ED.

Less acutely unwell patients are asked to first consider our Injury Units, GPs, out-of-hours GP services and pharmacists before attending ED.

Injury Units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s are operating as normal. Opening hours for Ennis and Nenagh Injury Units are 8am -8pm and St John’s Injury Unit 8am-7pm. For full contacts for the units, and the services available there, please see: https://www2.hse.ie/services/injury-units/

We regret that visiting restrictions remain in place at University Hospital Limerick.

The only exceptions to the ban are as follows:

  • Parents visiting children in hospital
  • People assisting confused patients (e.g. dementia)
  • People visiting patients who are critically unwell or at end of life (on a case-by-case basis)

All these exemptions are limited to one person per patient only.

Relatives or loved ones are advised that a service is in place to drop off or collect patient’s belongings at the main hospital reception.

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