The conditions in UHL are deplorable. I waited 12 hours in the emergency department with one of my children to be seen on a Tuesday through Wednesday and I can assure you it wasn't even busy. The place was like a ghost town. I was informed the reason for this was that there was only two doctors on for the night. Two doctors in a region serving the entire midwest. There was zero communication from staff, and patients that sought information or pain relief were routinely ignored while others were treated with contempt. It also appeared that private patients were receiving preferential treatment and many came, were treated and left within hours despite minor complaints, while others with serious injuries watched on in disbelief. One staff member was verbally abusive to any waiting patients that even considered asking any questions. The entire time we waited we did not see anyone outside of triage, not one nurse, not one single medical professional so much as walked through. For 12 hours my son was bleeding profusely from both a head injury that he eventually received stitches for and a broken nose. He was actually gurgling and choking on his own blood for the first five hours. I had to use a torn up t-shirt washed out in the sink of a public toilet to tend to him the entire night. He wasn't so much as offered a paracetamol. What kind of a country operates a hospital where the family of patients themselves tend to injuries with dirty blood soaked rags in public waiting rooms, washing those bloody rags in the patient bathrooms. My child has been admitted but has been left alone lying on a trolley in a corridor forgotten and whether he receives pain relief, food or liquids is currently a game of chance depending on whether or not staff wander down that particular corridor or not.

The urology team were overall excellent and very respectful and pleasant to deal with (with a couple of exceptions - one in particular needs to brush up on their communication skills i.e. dismissive of concerns and not following up on queries). My husband was left languishing far too long before the operation he needed was performed (not blaming medical team for this as decisions are made by hospital management). However the attention he received from the surgeon after the operation was faultless. The surgeon was a very kind, gracious and unassuming person who really seemed to care about his patients. Also the nurses in the ward work hard and are very competent at what they do, but there are far too few of them. To support them there are a number of agency care assistants and the level of professionalism and support they offered varied greatly. This became more obvious in the evenings. A few of them shuffled on to the ward and then seemed to plop down on the nearest chair and go on their phones for much of the evening and gave the impression that they didn't like to be disturbed, while others couldn't do enough for you.

The cleaners in the hospital didn't do a good job, not where I was anyway. My locker was not cleaned. Someone else's bum cream, a dirty basin, and another bum thing were left in it. They seem to be using dirty water and dirty cloths, which they use on everything and anywhere.

36 hours on a trolley at 91 years of age. No proper food. No privacy. No cleaning. No medical care. Ward overcrowded, impossible to clean and only one lavatory, food poor and unhealthy (chicken nuggets)! Never saw a consultant. Visiting hours very restrictive for visitors flying in or undertaking 8-hour car journeys. Ward closed to visitors due to Noro virus, leaving our mother stranded and isolated. In Germany where I lived, a government would fall if it did this to the elderly. The hospital would be closed down for deep cleaning.

I was looked after very well when diagnosed at 30 years old with breast cancer. My problem was getting diagnosed due to age.

The care in Limerick hospital that is provided is excellent.

They were honest and open when dealing with me... treated me with dignity and respect and couldn’t have been more respectful if they had tried.

The nurse and admin staff were lovely. The doctor I saw was of an incredibly low standard. He seemed to have little knowledge of my illness. He repeated questions several times as if he wasn't paying attention. I was quizzed more on my personal life rather than my physical illness.

No clear process or procedure. Nurses running around looking for equipment, dressings, gloves. Blood pressure equipment left uncharged or not functioning. The sequence of carrying out similar functions by different staff varied. The method of collection of data and recording of same is archaic. The layout of hospital and an efficient set of procedures are not compatible.The amount of time spent moving trolleys around (musical chairs) is ridiculous. There is probably more time spent moving trolleys around than there is dealing with the patients in the trolleys. The personnel on shifts seem to change so frequently that continuity is impaired and thus efficiency will not be achieved. Finding one's way around the hospital is an almost impossible task. Any restructuring of the building that has taken place lacks foresight and imagination. Parking charges are very expensive. The ratio of pen pushers to front line staff is off the wall. An efficient management structure is non existent. I would suggest knocking the building and starting from scratch. The term 'Centre of Excellence' is definitely a misnomer I believe.

I was given a letter from my doctor. CT scan required due to particular symptoms. After waiting for hours on end, an A&E staff member said ‘you're a category 4 and low on the list to be seen. Maybe if more doctors come in you will be seen’. The staff member asked me did I have a needle in my arm and I said ‘ What needle?. I did not have a needle in my arm - there was no treatment given. The staff member cut the patient ID band off my wrist and I left the hospital without being seen. I felt the staff member's attitude was very disconcerting, they couldn’t care less. I was polite but inside was infuriated. Never again.

Not very clean and I rarely saw nurses/doctors wash hands or use sanitiser. I later found out that I had come into contact with someone who had a hospital superbug and I now have to get more tests, but I will never set foot in this place again. Rarely saw cleaners, and when they were around, they did not clean properly. They used the same cloths in the toilet and ward.

Wait time way too long. Very testing to mental health!! Extremely difficult to stay there.

Unbelievably bad treatment. The focus appeared to be on not admitting any patient to a trolley. I was waiting 18 hours for a blood test and an x-ray. I was then sent home. The next day I was phoned and told my x-ray was misread and to return for a scan, another six hours were spent with no clear result. I was sent home not because they had identified the problem but because they didn't want to admit me on a trolley!

I was happy with the treatment I received.

Leave your dignity at the front door.

Horrendous place. Absolutely no empathy by those on duty. Twelve hours waiting to see a doctor. Sent home in pain with prescription for painkillers at 3am. Nurses could not take blood without making a big mess and destroying my clothes. Doctor had bloodshot eyes from doing long overtime hours. Had to go to another hospital and pay 570 euro to get proper treatment. My relatives in Finland and London were shocked when they were told how I was treated.

Awful. I was admitted to hospital with what turned out to be a very serious diagnosis. I had to have a procedure that took place in a shared room with only a local anaesthetic. I was crying out in pain but the doctor did not listen to me. Doctor was not even wearing appropriate clothing, just had gloves on. This took place after X-ray was closed so I had to be taken in a wheelchair with oxygen to A&E by the porter, then they had no ward bed so pushed in an extra bed into a ward. I had no curtain around my bed for privacy and the ward was understaffed. Only for one other patient who was in for tests helped me in and out of bed, I would have had no help. I was then moved to another ward as I had complained a few times. There was both men and women on this ward with one man vomiting and not isolated. I had to discharge myself. I went back the following week to a rapid access clinic to be taken to a store room upstairs to be told I had a very serious diagnosis. I had to have another procedure and managed to get a semi private room for one night. The place is appalling. I had got sick on the floor of the bathroom in one of the wards and this was not cleaned for another hour. I stayed here in November 2017.

Place is a dump and some of the doctors are a joke.

I have one complaint and that is I had my bloods taken by the GP the day before and they’d been sent to the same hospital as I was in the next day. The doctors had to redo my bloods the exact same ones as the laboratory could not process them for the doctors as it came into another side of the lab in the same hospital and my understanding is it is one big room?! I found this extremely inefficient, it created more work that was not needed. It is a waste of productivity. It was bad enough I had to get my bloods done twice in less than 24 hours but I was then discharged without any blood results, not the doctor's fault. The whole purpose of the bloods being redone was that I would have my blood results on the same day and could be treated accordingly. I had to wait three days. I found that extremely unsatisfactory as I was 21 weeks pregnant and have a thyroid condition. It stressed me more as I was worrying about how it was effecting my baby if the medication needed to be adjusted. My suggestion would be to find a way to make the laboratory more efficient and reduce cost by reducing time wasting like this. Thank you.

I've been to the hospital a few times. I can't say I've ever had a bad experience. The staff have always been lovely and polite and do their best for patients. The nurses and the trainee doctors are especially friendly. Granted it's not fun waiting for hours and hours sometimes, but that's just the way it goes. I'm not going to get pissy about it. (Bring a book to read.)

A&E is a joke, too many people left on trolleys for long periods of time, with very little interaction with staff. On the day my partner was brought in by ambulance, he was on a trolley in A&E at lunchtime. When the food trolley was going around, he left his trolley as he was feeling a bit panicky. I went and asked for food and was told by a very rude individual that as he was not on his trolley he could not get food outside the area, 'it was the rules'. The ambulance, resuscitation dept and most of the staff in 3A were brilliant. However, training is needed for a lot of the others, some of them could not answer basic questions!

14 hrs in casualty waiting to see a doctor, sitting with people who looked like they just got out of jail. Could not sleep as didn't feel safe, felt intimidated by the people there and no security to ease the tension.

Accident and emergency is completely shocking. A new building that is completely overcrowded. NO DIGNITY shown to people waiting for treatment. No sensitivity shown to patients on trolleys by staff. For example, patient on trolley right inside the door. People leaving the area have to push a button to open the door, to do this you had to reach over a person on a trolley right under the switch. I was shocked that someone thought it was appropriate to park a trolley in this location. Huge visitor area but overcrowded patient area. Who designed this facility? It was designed recently but is it COMPLETELY inadequate. It is complete inadequate!! Nurses talking on the phone about patients' medical problem's, patient records left on a counter in public view. A complete air of incompetence, disorganisation, and poor standards . It would make you feel ashamed to be Irish. Also noted a lot of staff from foreign countries - where are the staff our universities are training? Why are they not on the words of OUR hospitals. Taxpayers are funding their education, they should not be allowed to go off abroad until they have given some service to our hospital here first. First five years after graduation should be REQUIRED to be in an Irish hospital. END OF STORY. Overall impression is chaos, incompetence, poor management, understaffed and not enough Irish staff.

I have given high scores because they do their best under extremely difficult circumstances. This hospital needs more funding urgently. I waited nine hours with my arm broken in five places and got no pain relief as I was on a trolley waiting. I had a botched surgery as well and spent a month in this hospital recovering.

Excellent doctors and staff on visit February 17th 2018.

My partner was brought in by ambulance - was treated brilliantly in recuss and was then moved to a ward. When we entered this ward, there were 2 non-English speaking nurses who did not follow any instructions given by the recuss team. My partner had a health scare in this ward, and when I went for help off the nurses, they just looked at me and walked away. There was a team of doctors after entering the ward, and they cared for my partner. He was admitted but nobody could explain to us what to do if he became sick again at home. Appalling service and food was just crap.

5 star service.

Fabulous unit but without such fabulous staff, there would be no point to it. I have many dealings with family members who attended hospital and cannot fault the care given.

Everything was orderly and fast moving, from A&E to the Eye Clinic. I had to wait around after being treated before I could drive so had some time to observe. I was surprised at how the waiting areas at the various clinics got emptied by 6pm. The whole place looked clean.

Arrived A&E at 5pm on a Friday, finally got a trolley at 3.30am. The place was absolutely freezing as air con seemed to be on and no blankets where available. I actually put a pair of socks on a man who was freezing and in pain. Loads of trolleys as always. At 6am, was asked to sign the insurance form as I was being admitted. I was taken down to another area, quickly cleaned and put in bed. On inspection the next morning to my horror I was sleeping on a mattress cover (no sheet) and a badly stained top sheet. I asked for this to be replaced, then used it as s bottom sheet as they had none. Also NO pillow cases, horrified at this . I was informed they hadn't yet received enough bed linen. Most patients wore their dressing gowns in bed as was so cold!!!!! Also this ward is meant to be a two-day max stay but I'm now here five days. No shower facility as water from shower runs onto ward floor. What a waste of time to admit someone on a Friday and do nothing until Monday, but of course I'm a private patient so you can claim big money for my stay. As a private patient I would have expected a little bit more. I basically spent my time sitting around. Expected to be discharged today but they said sure we will do another test, but oh can't do it today not sure what day we will keep you in until!! More insurance money. The HSE need to get their act together, the whole system stinks.