Tag Archives: hospital

SHANNON grandmother Mariea Marley spent 55 hours on a trolley at UHL recently and this week she says she would be very reluctant to go to A&E in the future. Mariea’s only daughter Michelle lives near her two parents and she brought her mother to hospital, after having been told to go in at a doctor’s appointment. “She went in on Saturday after being down at ShannonDoc, her blood pressure was a bit up from this cough she had. I was a bit concerned because it was going on a while. “My mother is a dialysis patient, so she’d pick up things, and it seemed to me to be an infection, it was more than a cough or a cold. She had numerous antibiotics and steroids since Christmas and they weren’t clearing it.” Initially things didn’t look too bad at A & E. “It didn’t seem to be too manic at the time. There were a few in front of …

TEACHERS and staff at St Flannan’s College have voiced opposition to plans for the development of a €25 million 100-bed community nursing unit on land used as playing grounds by the Ennis secondary school. According to a statement issued by the staff of St Flannan’s the proposal “will have a seriously negative impact” on the student population. “The green field site in St Flannan’s College is the last remaining site of its kind in Ennis. Urban sprawl is taking up much more of our green spaces each year. Once this land is built upon it will be gone forever,” it states. The teachers and staff have detailed reasons for their opposition to the plans including that during the academic year many teams of various sports regularly train on the pitches. “With so many students on the fields at any one time all our field space is utilised, including much of the space that is suggested for development under the proposed …

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has notified of 19 new cases of Covid-19 in Clare, bringing the total number of new cases in the county in the past 14 days to 167. 66 additional deaths related to Covid-19 have been notified today. 41 of these deaths occurred in February, 8 occurred in January, 7 in December and 9 occurred in November or earlier. The median age of those who died was 84 years and the age range was 39 to 98 years. There has been a total of 3,931 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight, Friday, February 12, the HPSC has been notified of 1,078 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 208,796 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 523 are men / 549 are women 70% are under 45 years of age The median age is 32 years old 433 in Dublin, 139 in Galway, 52 in Limerick, 49 …

SIGNIFICANT increases in hospital bed capacity and development of a range of integrated community care packages and enhanced home care supports are at the core of the joint €35.7 million UL Hospitals’ Group (ULHG) and HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare Winter Plan for 2020-21. The Winter Plan is a range of integrated measures aimed at keeping the residents of the Mid-West well and ensuring the safe provision of care in our hospitals during a period of unprecedented challenge for the health services. While Covid-19 remains prevalent within the community, the total Winter Plan investment of almost €36m will improve access to appropriate care at home or close to home, with an emphasis on hospital avoidance. Under the plan, more than €20 million is allocated to UL Hospitals’ Group for investment in staffing for its ongoing expansion of single-room bed capacity, primarily at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). Since the Autumn, UHL has opened 38 beds in new rapid-build bed blocks constructed under …

THE HSE has confirmed it is considering proposals to expand the level of services delivered from Tier 2 hospitals including Ennis General. This comes as the combination of overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick and the Covid-19 pandemic has been described as “a catastrophe waiting to happen” by chair of the special Oireachtas Covid-19 committee Deputy Michael McNamara. Liam Woods, HSE national director of acute operations appeared before the committee where Deputy McNamara asked about the potential for increasing services at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s in Limerick. Deputy McNamara outlined that, “Limerick consistently has the highest numbers of people on trolleys”. Mr Woods acknowledged that there has “been a demand and supply mismatch”, and that a number of developments have been directed at growing and improving capacity. He continued, “Hospital beds are not the solution in isolation in the health environment. In fact, excess focus on hospital beds as against community investment will lead to an ineffective situation. From our …

Patients in the Ul Hospitals Group (ULHG) Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) at the University of Limerick (UL) are benefiting from a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to their ongoing rehabilitation when they are transferred to the facility from the group’s acute hospitals. The ICF was opened on June 8 in the reconfigured main hall of the UL Sport Arena, a fully equipped temporary hospital setting for non Covid-19 or post Covid-19 patients who no longer require acute medical attention, but who can benefit from ongoing rehabilitation and support before final discharge. In the ICF rehabilitation is the primary focus, based on a rounded, holistic vision of healthcare and wellbeing. Medical and healthcare expertise is directed toward supporting the patient’s readiness for discharge, not just physically building their strength and communication skills, but also preparing them mentally and helping to ensure their home or residential care setting is optimised before their discharge. The 68-bed ICF, which has capacity to scale up to 84 …

Home dialysis is transforming the lives of chronic kidney disease patients in the Mid-West, improving quality of life through efficient treatment modes and schedules that can be adapted to people’s domestic and working lives, and reducing frequency of hospital visits for the patient. At a time when some 85-90% of the 200-220 patients receiving dialysis treatment for chronic kidney failure are doing so ‘in-centre’ at University Hospital Limerick, making it one of Ireland’s busiest haemodialysis services, the hospital’s Department of Renal Medicine team continues to promote home-based dialysis as the best option for patients requiring the treatment. Dr Liam Casserly, Lead Nephrologist in the Department, who has cared for patients on dialysis treatments for the past 25 years, says: “Patients tell us that home treatments provide a quality of life that comes closest to their normal routines; whether that’s going to the shop, going away for a weekend, having a holiday, or even sudden events like funerals, these home therapies …

A further 28 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died in Ireland while the number of positive cases in Clare is on the increase, up by 22 to a total of 187. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre said the additional 28 deaths brings to 794 the number of laboratory confirmed Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of 1pm this Thursday afternoon, the HPSC has been notified of 936 new confirmed cases. There is now a total of 17,607 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country. The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread. Today’s data from the HPSC, (as of midnight April 21) reveals that of the 16,439 cases: * 56% are female and 43% are male * the median age of confirmed cases is 48 years * 2,424 cases (15%) have been hospitalised * Of those hospitalised, 331 cases have been admitted to ICU …