New facilities for Nenagh hospital

Local centre ‘played a vital role’ in pandemic response

A number of new facilities are being introduced at Nenagh hospital, as Mid West HSE chiefs last week praised the role of the local centre in responding to the Covid-19 crisis.

A new outpatients department is to be developed as part of the private €20 million medical centre planned across the road from hospital. A HSE Mid West media briefing was last week informed that the outpatients department was sought following the recent medical centre announcement. The outpatients facility was approved in late January.

The briefing was also informed that an ambulatory gynaecology clinic and subfertility centre would soon be opening at Nenagh hospital. These additions will provide modern day-case services to female patients. Located in the new development at the front of the hospital, the clinic will be open once it is equipped.

And the hospital's Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) will soon be operating at full capacity following the commencement of a new consultant and senior house officer in January. The HSE is still trying to recruit a registrar for the MAU. Dr Terry Hennessy, as clinical lead for the region's Model 2 hospitals (Nenagh, Ennis and St John's), has been engaging with local GPs with regard to spending time at the MAU.

Chief Clinical Director at UL Hospitals Group Dr Brian Lenehan last week praised Nenagh and the other Model 2 hospitals for the regional response to the pandemic. “Without our Model 2 partners, we would have really struggled in the last two years,” he said.

“They played a vital role in our response to each wave of Covid,” added Group Chief Operations Officer Noreen Spillane. “They facilitated the UHL staff to carry on with their core emergency services - the Emergency Department, theatres, and medical wards, ICU and HDU. They redeployed staff at all levels of the pandemic.

“Even most recently, when we had very high numbers of staff out, the Model 2 hospitals moved patients between each other and also into the UHL site, into ICU and HDU.”

Nenagh hospital had 69 Covid-19 inpatients in 2020 and the same number in 2021. There were a number of outbreaks of the virus over the two years at all of the region's hospital sites. Ms Spillane mentioned how Nenagh and Ennis in particular were well-served with the complement of isolation rooms.

“We continue to do that every day - we transfer patients to each of the sites every day so that we can create capacity for the patients in the Emergency Department in UHL.”

FALL IN ATTENDANCES

Attendances at Nenagh hospital fell with the onset of the pandemic. The Local Injury Unit had 10,025 presentations in 2019. This dropped to 8,672 in 2020 but recovered to 9,971 last year.

Inpatient discharges fell from 3,451 in 2019 to 2,872 in 2020 and 2,106 last year. Throughput at Nenagh hospital was not as high as the region's other sites as patients tended to remain onsite longer for rehabilitation.

The number of day cases at Nenagh hospital fell from 7,511 in 2019 to 4,939 the following year and 4,700 in 2021. The HSE had to curtail a considerable amount of scheduled care during the pandemic so as to maintain core services.

Outpatient attendances stood at 13,479 in 2019 but dropped to 8,161 and 8,226 last year.

WAITING LISTS INCREASE

Waiting lists have increased sharply as a result of the pandemic, with the number of people waiting more than 18 months for an outpatient appointment across UL Hospitals Group sites almost doubling in the last two years. There were 20,449 patients on the hospital group's outpatient waiting list last year. The figure stood at 12,109 before the pandemic in 2019.

A number of key drivers of waiting list improvements included the recruitment of additional consultant and non-consultant hospital doctors, advance nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, extended scope physiotherapists and clerical/admin staff. Around 700 new staff were hired across all services in 2021.

Dr Lenehan said the focus for 2022 would be to see those who have been waiting waiting more than 18 months for an appointment.

KELLY WELCOMES NEW SERVICES

Local TD Alan Kelly this week said he was delighted with the new services for Nenagh hospital. He said there would also be a centre for treating menopause, which would be one of only three across the country.

Deputy Kelly said the MAU would be a great asset to the locality and see approximately 20 patients a day, people who may otherwise end up in an overcrowded UHL.

“I've had reason to use the facility myself in recent years and it is a fantastic service,” he stated.