Tag Archives: Mid-West

The Clare Covid-19 Vaccination Centre is permanently relocating from the former outpatients’ department at Ennis Hospital to Treacy’s West County Hotel from this Wednesday, which will immediately triple the capacity for walk-in clinics. As Christmas approaches, 13 walk-in clinics are being held across the three Mid-West Covid-19 Centres from Monday, December 20 up to Thursday, December 23rd, delivering vaccine booster doses for people aged 40 and older, and primary Dose 1 and 2 vaccines for anyone yet to receive a vaccine.   These extended half-day and full-day walk-in clinics are being held to meet public demand for booster vaccines, and as part of the national effort to maximise the population’s immunity in view of the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omircon variant, and continued prevalence of the virus’s Delta variant.     Clare walk-in clinics for the 40 years age group and older will begin at the West County at 3.30pm on December 22nd. The walk-in clinics scheduled for the former …

  A second round of Walk-In First-Dose Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccination Clinics will be held at designated centres this weekend for people aged 16-years and older who have not yet been vaccinated. The local clinics are being hosted in the vaccination centres in Limerick Racecourse, Treacy’s County Hotel, Ennis, and the Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh, as part of a national effort triggered by the HSE nationally, in light of the success of the walk-in clinics held in vaccination centres nationwide during the August Bank Holiday. Clinics in the three Mid-West Covid-19 Vaccination Centres will be held at set times from Friday, August 6th to Sunday August 8th. They include Limerick Racecourse from 2pm to 7pm; and Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh from 2pm to 7pm on Friday, August 6. People can call into the West County Hotel, Ennis from 8.15am to 12.30pm on Saturday. On Sunday August 8th the Limerick Racecourse will be administering the vaccine from 10am to 12.30pm and 1pm …

ONLY five healthcare workers were hired in the Mid-West following a national recruitment appeal during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, new figures have revealed. According to statistics obtained by Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly, only five healthcare staff were taken on through ‘Be On Call for Ireland’ in the region. They also show that just 185 health and social care workers have been hired through this scheme across the State out of 73,000 applicants. Deputy O’Reilly described the paltry recruitment of healthcare workers as “baffling”. “It beggars belief that with tens of thousands of health staff applying to work through ‘Be On Call for Ireland’ and in the face of an international healthcare crisis, that recruitment through the initiative has been so low,” she said. Dr Michael Harty said the recruitment of highly skilled qualified nurses, doctors and allied health professionals to permanent positions has been very patchy. The Kilmihil-based GP said several medics who assumed they would …

THE importance of Shannon Airport for Clare was stressed in the Dáil last week, with calls for it to be helped through the Covid-19 crisis. “Shannon Airport is the driving force in Clare and the Mid-West Region. At this time of crisis, it has been deemed essential and has accepted many cargo flights of personal protection equipment, PPE. “When the crisis is over, there will be an acute need for the Department to provide the airport with a capital expenditure fund,” said Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe. “For too long, the airport has had to self-finance all major projects, including a recent €15 million upgrade of the runway. “All such outlays seriously eat into the airport’s financial resources meaning that it has very little funding left over for marketing the airport, attracting new routes and retaining existing routes. There is urgent action needed in that regard. “The funding needs to be ring-fenced for the airport to safeguard it in the …

CLARE has been ranked fifth highest of Irish counties most exposed to “significant economic disruption” caused by the Covid-19 outbreak with more than half of the commercial units in the county likely to be affected. Cooraclare economist John Daly has conducted a study for the three Regional Assemblies of Ireland which found 50.5% of Clare’s commercial units were operating in sectors likely to be worst affected by Covid-19. This represents just over 2,500 businesses in Clare. The analysis found that 51% of units in Newmarket-on-Fergus were at risk, 47.7% in Ennis, 43.8% Kilrush, 42.6% Sixmilebridge and 32.6% in Shannon. Coastal and rural counties are more likely to be exposed due to their reliance on commercial units that generally require human interaction and cannot be operated remotely, the study outlines. The GeoDirectory commercial database has been used in identifying each area’s reliance on sectors likely to be affected by measures designed to curtail the spread of Covid-19. Sectors determined as likely …

THE Mid-West Careers Fair will take place in the South Court Hotel, Raheen, Limerick on Wednesday March 27 from 11am to 5.30pm. The careers fair is one of some 80 events taking place around the country during National Jobs Week which runs from March 25 to 29. Organised in conjunction with the Mid-West Regional Skills Forum, some 30 employers and 15 training providers will attend the Mid-West Careers Fair. Entry is free to all and jobseekers can register their attendance on the day. This event will provide an opportunity for people to meet with local companies actively recruiting. Local education and training providers will also be exhibiting at the event. Companies attending range from Multi Nationals to small and medium sized enterprises and include, Guidant IRC, OpTech Ltd, General Motors, First Data, WP Engine, Atlantic Aviation, Jaguar Land Rover and Johnson and Johnson. Many of the employers are returning to the event for the third and fourth time because they …

The University of Limerick has been named University of the Year 2019 in the Sunday Times Good University Guide. Alastair McCall, Editor of The Sunday Times Good University Guide outlined that the University of the Year status is well deserved and marks its second success in five years in receiving the title. “The University is at the economic heart of this Mid West city and the wider region, attracting brains and resources in equal measure. Its graduates are among the most employable in Ireland, prepared for work by practical courses and a work placement and internship programme second to none, which spans 1,600 employers at home and overseas,” he said. UL’s leading position in graduate employability, its cooperative education and internship programmes, its research in partnership with industry and the opening of the €31million new Glucksman Library were among the many reasons for the award. UL previously claimed the title of Sunday Times Irish University of the Year in 2015. “The University of …

THE Mayor of Clare has expressed fears that Mid-West outpatient and in-patient waiting lists will increase even further, as a result of the recent overcrowding in local acute hospitals. The UL Hospitals Group has been forced to cancel surgery at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) as a short-term measure to free up beds to deal with overcrowding in the emergency department (ED). Councillor Tom McNamara believes out-patient and in-patient waiting lists will “get worse before they get better”, following the recent widescale cancellations of surgical procedures. “We are talking about the need to tackle waiting lists but nothing is happening. We have become desensitised to seeing thousands of patients on waiting lists. It is unacceptable to have more than 32,000 patients on a waiting list in the Mid-West,” he said. Councillor McNamara has called on the HSE to make people aware of the criteria of the Cross Border Initiative, as a means of tackling large in-patient and out-patient lists in the …