Update on the West / North West Hospitals Group at the Regional Health Forum

Bill Maher, CEO of the West / North West Hospitals Group and Tony Canavan, Chief Operating Officer attended the Regional Health Forum Area West meeting in Galway today and provided an update on a number of developments in the Hospital Group.
 
In addition, Tony Canavan read a statement* with an update following the completion of the three investigations which followed the tragic maternal death case at UHG last year.
 
The Forum Chairman and Members were also reminded of their responsibilities under the Regional Health Forum West Standing Orders which state that the Forum may not consider or make representations in respect of the terms or conditions of a contract of employment including disciplinary procedures.
 
Mayo General Hospital
The new Renal Dialysis Unit has been completed and has been handed over to the hospital. The validation and commissioning of the Water Treatment and Reverse Osmosis plant is continuing. This is a critical step and one of the essential measures which must be in place before the new Dialysis Unit can become operational. Patients will be transferred to the new unit as soon as the hospital is satisfied that all measures are in place to assure the safe treatment of the dialysis patients. It is expected that validation and commissioning of the Water Treatment and Reverse Osmosis plant will be completed in early December with a scheduled opening date of Monday, 09 December.
 
Letterkenny General Hospital
The rebuild programme following the devastating flood at the end of July is underway involving a number of projects being worked on simultaneously with priority to key patient areas. On 11 November work started on the Emergency Department, Acute Medical Assessment Unit, Cardiac and Pulmonary Investigations and the Pharmacy. The Gynecology/ambulatory care rebuild work is complete with an additional eleven inpatient beds to help manage peak flow in the temporary Emergency Department.
 
Following a detailed and exhaustive evaluation process, a location was selected for a temporary Outpatient Department and work is underway at the Court House Building in Letterkenny to prepare it for clinical use. The building will be handed over to the hospital 02 December and all outpatient clinics that are currently offsite will be provided from this new location from 09 December.
 
The HSE’s National Capital Steering Group has approved the development of a multipurpose radiology interventional suite which will be a significant enhancement of the pre-flood capacity enabling diagnosis of more patients locally who currently have to travel to Galway or Dublin.
 
Work on the remainder of the key areas are at various stages of development – scoping, design and tendering. These include the kitchens and dining room, medical records department, offices, chapels, mortuary and boiler house and utilities ducting tunnels.