A report into the University Hospital Limerick emergency department said staff were being asked to work on 130 separate recommendations and that it was a “huge burden” for already over-stretched workers.
It also said too many diagnostic tests were being ordered, partly because of fears about compensation claims, and dozens of patients were waiting more than 28 days for discharge.
A review of the effectiveness of the emergency department said that while it was “admirable” to try and address all the failings at UHL’s A&E, change had to be realistic.
The report, finalised earlier this year, said the ED had been the subject of “many previous inspections and reviews”, with so many recommendations that it was hard to keep track.
It said: “These vary between small simple tasks to much larger and complex tasks. We are concerned that this is a huge burden for an already stretched staff and managerial group.”
The report, prepared by four senior clinicians led by Dame Marianne Griffiths, said it might make more sense to “prioritise the recommendations” and pick out those that were “an inch wide and a mile deep” rather than the reverse.
The authors said they had been “genuinely impressed” by the staff working at UHL especially given the “relentlessness of the challenges faced in ED and the wards”.