The cancellation of non-urgent outpatient clinics at University Hospital Limerick and some elective surgery at St John’s Hospital has been extended until Wednesday.
In a statement, the University of Limerick Hospitals Group said that UHL is continuing “to manage an extraordinarily high level of emergency presentations and increasing numbers of Covid-positive patients.”
It said the decision to extend the cancellation was taken to assist with patient flow in the hospital.
Patients who are directly affected by the decision are being contacted and will have their appointments rescheduled.
Services that are unaffected by the cancellations are:
- Cancer Clinics
- Rapid Access Lung Clinics
- Rapid Access Prostate Clinics
- Rapid Access Breast Clinics
- Nurse-led Heart Failure and Cardiac Rehab
- Day-case Angiograms
- Acute Fracture Clinic, UHL
- Endoscopy Clinics
- Eye Clinic
- ENT Clinic
- Endocrinology Clinic
- Dermatology Clinic
- Vascular Laboratory Clinic
Outpatient appointments at Ennis, Nenagh, Croom and University Maternity Hospital Limerick are unaffected by the decision.
Emergency care also continues through the emergency department at UHL while the injury units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals remain open.
The hospitals group said that site-wide visiting restrictions introduced on 5 October in response to an outbreak of Covid-19 at UHL remain in place.
As of today, there are 52 patients with the virus in the hospital, of which six are in critical care, either in the intensive care or high dependency units.
The group said the situation is being reviewed daily, in the hope of resuming cancelled services as soon as possible.
