New management structure for hospital

The phased introduction of a new management structure for all acute hospitals in the Mid-West, including Ennis Hospital, started on Monday.

Although outgoing Ennis Hospital manager, Frank Keane officially ended his position as hospital boss on Friday, he will continue to keep a “watching brief” over the coming weeks on issues such as capital improvements as an interim measure.

Negotiations are almost finalised on expanding the current post of director of nursing to look after some of the day-to-day on-site issues of running Ennis Hospital while other issues will be dealt with by the new four directorates covering medicine, pre-operative care, maternity and child health and diagnostics.

Mr Keane believes the new directorate  model will make serious inroads to deliver a more co-ordinated, streamlined, acute hospital service.

“We are moving from a model where you have a manager responsible for everything in a building to a model where you have a manager responsible for very specific things in all hospitals.

“It creates a level of expertise over time. It keeps you in a zone where you can focus on two or three specific aspects of care across the region.

“Change is very difficult for staff and the public. A lot of people throughout the country were unhappy with the delivery of healthcare. Huge efforts have been made to improve the delivery of health services,” he said.

“You can’t continue doing things the same way and expecting different results. You can’t superimpose a new solution and keep all old model intact. It is a transition process where every effort will be made to maintain patient safety at all times.

“Finances are forcing us to look at model of service delivery and change it. It is not about cost cutting back, it is about making service delivery more efficient and better,” he added.

Having returned to Ennis Hospital as manager two-and-a-half years ago, the former paramedic had planned to spend the next 20 years working in the hospital until retirement.

Having enjoyed a good relationship with staff, who are dedicated to providing a very high standard of care to patients, he made it clear he would always take a phone call from any staff member who needed assistance once he officially left his post on Friday.

He pointed out a lot of the groundwork for the major capital developments over the last two-and-half years were laid by his predecessor, John Doyle, and noted some projects had to be pushed over the line.

These include the commissioning of the new state-of-the art 50 bedded in-patient unit as well as the development of the  new endoscopy suite and day ward. Plans are also underway for a new modern pharmacy and new physiotherapy department.

Physiotherapy is currently located in an outside, prefabricated building, which was granted planning permission on a temporary basis.

Ennis Hospital also has a pharmacy, which isn’t fit for modern purpose nowadays and doesn’t fully comply with new legislation.

It is getting too small while pharmacology as a science is expanding year on year.

“The difficulty with any piece of infrastructure that doesn’t comply with modern regulations,  you either do it and make it comply or you don’t do it,” he explained.

The new pharmacy will be located on the ground floor of the hospital in the space, that was previously occupied by the elderly care unit and medical assessment unit.

The new physiotherapy department will be located above this in what was previously the old male medical ward.