A new 96-bed unit at University Hospital Limerick will be officially opened by the Minister for Health today.
The opening of the block on the Dooradoyle campus comes two weeks after HIQA published a report recommending “immediate action and investment” to increase bed capacity in HSE Mid West.
UHL provides the only 24-hour emergency department in the region, including Limerick, Clare, north Tipperary. It also receives patients from parts of north Cork and north Kerry.
The hospital consistently has the highest number of patients being treated on hospital trolleys in the country.
The new block, which consists of four wards of 24 beds, requires around 400 additional staff, the majority of whom are in post.
Recruitment is ongoing to fill the remaining posts, according to the hospital.
Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is today expected to outline how the Government intends to act on the recommendations of HIQA.
The health watchdog’s review of emergency healthcare in the midwest provided three options for increasing bed capacity, which included the construction of an additional hospital or extending the UHL site on site or at another site in close proximity.
The report said: “The core issue is that there are not enough inpatient beds in HSE Mid West which are capable of treating the sickest patients who present for urgent or emergency care.
“We recommended immediate action and investment to address current risks to patient safety in the shortest timeframe and safest way possible.”
Urgent and emergency healthcare services in the midwest were reconfigured in 2009, with the closure of three smaller emergency departments at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals, and the centralisation of ED care at UHL.