Tag Archives: Ennis Hospital

UL Hospitals Group is facilitating virtual hospital visits to help keep families in touch during the COVID-19 public health emergency at local hospitals including Ennis. Wide-ranging visiting restrictions were imposed across the six acute hospitals in the MidWest on March 5 as part of efforts to reduce transmission of the virus. Additional supports were introduced for patients who could no longer look forward to a morale-boosting visit from their loved ones. The Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service (PALS) has been expanded through the recruitment of new staff and the redeployment of existing staff. PALS are present in UHL St John’s, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals and have this week commenced a service in Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. “It is a time of heightened anxiety for everybody. Hospital can be a lonely experience at the best of times and the visiting ban has only aggravated that. We identified that the PALS service could respond to the new patient needs. At UHL, we facilitated …

Injury Units in Nenagh and Ennis Hospitals and St John’s Limerick will play a vital role in UL Hospitals Group’s ring-fencing of the Emergency Department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick (UL) for treatment of Covid-19 cases and other seriously ill patients during the ongoing public health emergency. As de-escalation of the region’s main acute hospital continues in anticipation of the Covid-19 surge, all patients with minor injuries—such as suspected broken bones, cuts, bruises, sprains and strains—will be redirected to the Injury Units in Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s for treatment. To support this redirection of minor injury work, the injury unit at St John’s is moving from five-day to seven-day opening. From Saturday March 28th, the facility opened from 8am to 7pm on weekends and the unit’s weekday opening hours were also extended, with the facility open until 7pm every day. Dr Gareth Quin, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at UHL and St John’s Hospital Injury Unit, encouraged patients with minor …

Injury Units in Nenagh and Ennis Hospitals and St John’s Limerick will play a vital role in UL Hospitals’ Group’s ring-fencing of the Emergency Department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick (UL) for treatment of Covid-19 cases and other seriously ill patients during the ongoing public health emergency. As de-escalation of the region’s main acute hospital continues in anticipation of the Covid-19 surge, all patients with minor injuries—such as suspected broken bones, cuts, bruises, sprains and strains—will be redirected to the Injury Units in Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s for treatment. To support this redirection of minor injury work, the injury unit at St John’s is moving from five-day to seven-day opening. From Saturday March 28th, the facility will open from 8am to 7pm on weekends. The unit’s weekday opening hours have also been extended, with the facility open until 7pm every day. Dr Gareth Quin, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at UHL and St John’s Hospital Injury Unit, encouraged patients with …

THE Healthy Harmony Choir was formed by a group of medical practitioners at Ennis Hospital as a way to unwind and de-stress after a busy day’s work and now two years on, the 30-strong group are singing its praises in terms of its impact on their well-being. Brenda Bleach, a registered advanced nurse practitioner at Ennis Hospital, is one of the choir members and has been involved with the choir since it began. She explained how it got off the ground and why it has become such a popular outlet for staff across the entire UL Hospitals Group. “We started off as staff from Ennis Hospital and we are two years old now. The first year one of the nurses was interested in singing and always wanted a choir, so I ran it by health and wellbeing and asked if it was something we could look at. We started the choir and we didn’t initially have funding. We had paid …

ATTENDANCES at the Emergency Department at UHL increased in the week ending January 6 and are expected to rise further in the coming weeks. High volumes of elderly patients with medical conditions, in particular respiratory conditions, have been presenting in recent days and the number of flu cases has also begun to rise. There were 1,301 attendances to the ED at UHL between December 24 and December 30 and this rose to 1,343 attendances in the seven-day period December 31 to January 6. The Christmas/New Year period has also proven busy for the Injury Units Ennis, St John’s and Nenagh hospitals. Between December 24 and January 1 there were a total of 790 attendances to the three units combined, an aggregate increase of 6.5%. The numbers attending at Ennis were 245 (-18); at Nenagh 251 (+21) and at St John’s 294 (+45). “The hospital is currently operating at capacity and all available surge capacity is in use. Initiatives introduced under the winter plan  – such as expanding …

  NEW measures are needed to attract more consultants and nurses in acute hospitals to reduce the high numbers of patients on in-patient and out-patient appointments in the Mid-West. That’s according to former HSE West Forum chairman, Councillor Tom McNamara, who described the latest figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund for the Mid-West as “totally unacceptable”. With an estimated 30% of consultant posts in the UL Hospitals’ Group vacant, Councillor McNamara claimed there aren’t enough medical staff to open a second operating theatre at weekends. The Kilmaley Councillor called on Health Minister Simon Harris to introduce a new incentive to defray the cost of training for new nurses on the basis they commit to working for at least three years in the public health service to address the nursing shortage. According to figures released by the National Purchase Treatment Fund (NPTF),  the total number of in-patients waiting for treatment in the UL Hospitals’ Group increased from 5,533 last January …

    NURSES in Clare and throughout the Mid-West have overwhelmingly supported a national ballot for industrial action. The result of the ballot coincides with the revelation there are up to 60 nursing vacancies in University Hospital Limerick (UHL), which continues to struggle with overcrowding as INMO figures recorded 56 patients on trolleys on Tuesday, December 18. According to INMO industrial relations officer, Mary Fogarty, this doesn’t include ward nursing posts that were not funded since reconfiguration removed 24-hour casualty cover from Ennis and Nenagh Hospitals in April 2009. Ms Fogarty said eight beds were closed in St Camillus Hospital, Limerick and about ten funded beds in St Joseph’s Geriatric Hospital, Ennis. The union official pointed out if there was an examination about what St Joseph’s really required, this figure would be much higher. Asked if industrial action in the new year would made chronic overcrowding even worse, she stressed nurses were left with no other option. She said the …

Staff at University Hospital Limerick and across UL Hospitals Group, including Ennis, are getting ready to hit the road for their annual charity 5k. This year their efforts will benefit Friends of Ghana. The event, on Friday, August 25, will see staff of all abilities taking part in the 5k run and walk around the Dooradoyle – Raheen area of Limerick City which, now in its third year, has become an annual event at UHL. This year, the event is in aid of the Friends of Ghana , an NGO formed last year by UL Hospitals Group and its academic partner the University of Limerick to deliver medical training programmes in the remote Upper West Region of Ghana. A team from UL Hospitals Group and UL visited Ghana recently to deliver a programme in pre-hospital emergency care to 80 health workers in the Region and further programmes are planned. Promoting exercise in the workplace is part of UL Hospital Group’s …