Latest news with #HSEWest
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Health
- Irish Independent
Donegal and Sligo Hospitals to get new surgical hubs
Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will visit Letterkenny today to make the announcement having already given the good news in Sligo early this morning on a visit to Sligo University Hospital. It comes as there had been concerns that a surgical hub would be located in Sligo only with Letterkenny being overlooked for the facility resulting in a possible downgrade of the hospital. However, Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, has given her support to significant new investments in healthcare infrastructure for the North-West region, following a proposal from the CEO of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Bernard Gloster. The proposal includes a new surgical hub close to Sligo University Hospital, while at Letterkenny University Hospital a new surgical hub is proposed along with expanded oncology services. Speaking on the proposals, the Minister said, 'The Programme for Government committed to exploring the provision of a surgical hub for the North-West. I have consistently highlighted the need to ensure that patients in this region have access to sufficient and timely surgical capacity. Increasing surgical activity in the West and North-West is a clear priority. 'Today marks an important milestone in delivering on that commitment, and I am happy to support this proposal from the HSE. "I know Tony Canavan, Regional Executive Officer, HSE West and North West, and his team will now begin progressing these proposals, working closely with hospital management, clinical specialties, and the estates team to advance the design phase, secure planning permission, and prepare for tendering the construction works. 'These investments align with our Ambulatory Elective Day Care Strategy and the National Cancer Control Programme. They will ensure that patients in the North-West have timely access to high-quality surgical and oncology care. 'I look forward to returning to see the progress of these developments, which will make a real and lasting difference to people's lives in the region,' said Minister Carroll MacNeill. Letterkenny University Hospital will see the development of a new two-theatre surgical hub beside the existing hospital building, along with the addition of 30 ambulatory day oncology chairs – 15 new and 15 replacement. ADVERTISEMENT This dual investment will enhance both surgical and cancer treatment services in Donegal. The design of the new surgical hub will allow for future vertical expansion, addressing the long-term need for additional bed capacity in the region. To support this, a full Development Control Plan (DCP) for the Letterkenny University Hospital site will be commissioned to guide the sequencing of future developments. The HSE will now proceed with the development of planning applications for both sites, engaging with relevant local authorities, which will be prepared in parallel, ensuring a coordinated and efficient rollout of these critical healthcare projects. A new stand-alone, two-theatre surgical hub will be constructed in Sligo. This facility will significantly expand elective surgical capacity in the region. Drawing on the successful models already in place at Tallaght and Mount Carmel in Dublin, the hub will help reduce waiting times and improve access to scheduled surgical care. Donegal Minister of State, Charlie McConalogue, has welcomed confirmation from the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, of a new surgical hub for Letterkenny University Hospital. Welcoming the announcement, Donegal Minister of State, Charlie McConalogue, said: 'The proposal to develop a new two-theatre surgical hub beside Letterkenny University Hospital building, along with the addition of 30 ambulatory day oncology chairs - 15 new and 15 replacement – is excellent news for the people of Donegal. "The investment will serve to improve surgical and cancer services in the county.' 'I have stressed to the HSE that Donegal must be provided with its own surgical hub. "I have worked closely at political level in Government to ensure that a surgical hub will be delivered for Letterkenny and I thank the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, for her help and assistance. "I also welcome the announcement that patients in the North West will have access to high-quality surgical and oncology care,' Minister McConalogue added. Donegal Deputy Pádraig MacLochlainn welcomed the news that a second Surgical Hub will be located in the North West at Letterkenny University Hospital along with expanded oncology services, with the other one being at Sligo University Hospital. Speaking today, Deputy MacLochlainn said, "This u-turn by government is the most welcome of news this morning and shows the impact political pressure can have. "It was unthinkable that the locating of regional Surgical Hubs across the country would not include one being located at Letterkenny University Hospital. "This is testament to the hard work of all that campaigned, particularly the 171 doctors and clinicians who stood up and fought for fairness for the people of Donegal. Without whom, this would not have been possible. "Forcing a u-turn on this issue was a priority for myself and Sinn Féin colleagues Deputy Pearse Doherty and Cllr Gerry McMonagle, chair of the HSE Regional Health Forum West. "It is hard to put into words just how badly needed this expansion of services was. It will save lives and ensure the future of Letterkenny University Hospital. "There is still work to be done, but this is an enormous step taken today to improve Letterkenny University Hospital and healthcare in Donegal,' said Deputy MacLochlainn.
Irish Daily Mirror
09-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Daily Mirror
Women with higher-risk pregnancies to be transferred from Co Galway hospital
Antenatal care for women with higher-risk pregnancies is being moved from a Co Galway hospital. The decision comes amid a number of external reviews into the care provided to women and their babies at Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe. While five of the reviews have been completed and shared with the families, a further seven reviews are under way or due to commence. The reviews have been described as covering four common themes of concern, including communication. governance, clinical care, leadership and clinical governance and infrastructure. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the care for women with high-risk pregnancies is being transferred to Galway University Hospital (GUH). It added: "Considering the safety issues highlighted in these reviews, this implementation team will expand this to other groups of higher-risk women whose care will be transferred to GUH or the hospital of their choice. "Factors which contribute to higher-risk pregnancies include previous loss of a baby, history of significant medical disease, history of massive obstetric haemorrhage, obesity and maternal age. "Women considered likely to deliver their baby before 35 weeks' pregnancy will also have their care moved." An implementation team with key stakeholders is being set up to further progress the recommendations from the reviews and any further changes required over the coming months. Dr Pat Nash, regional clinical director at HSE West and North West, said work is under way on the recommendations. "We are fully committed to implementing the recommendations laid out in the five reviews and will take all steps necessary to ensure we are providing the best care possible to the women and babies receiving care at our hospital," he said. "Much of this work is well advanced through the work of the external management team and Women's & Children's Network." Tony Canavan, regional executive officer at HSE West and North West, said their focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of women and their babies. "The management team appointed in January to oversee and manage maternity services in Portiuncula University Hospital remains in place and are working on a programme of improvements, many of which relate to the recommendations," he said. "Our focus remains on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of women and their babies." Dr Cliona Murphy, of the National Women's and Infants Programme, added: "The National Women and Infants Health Programme welcome the publication of the five reviews today. "We note that some of the commentary in the summary Report relates to the challenges that are faced by the regional maternity services. "Currently all maternity services are managed through maternity networks, and the specific issues raised in the summary of the five reviews will form part of the considerations for the successor to the National Maternity Strategy, which is set out in the Programme for Government."
Irish Examiner
09-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Women with higher-risk pregnancies to be transferred from Co Galway hospital
Antenatal care for women with higher-risk pregnancies is being moved from a Co Galway hospital. The decision comes amid a number of external reviews into the care provided to women and their babies at Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe. While five of the reviews have been completed and shared with the families, a further seven reviews are under way or due to commence. The reviews have been described as covering four common themes of concern, including communication. governance, clinical care, leadership and clinical governance and infrastructure. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the care for women with high-risk pregnancies is being transferred to Galway University Hospital (GUH). It added: 'considering the safety issues highlighted in these reviews, this implementation team will expand this to other groups of higher-risk women whose care will be transferred to GUH or the hospital of their choice. 'Factors which contribute to higher-risk pregnancies include previous loss of a baby, history of significant medical disease, history of massive obstetric haemorrhage, obesity and maternal age. 'Women considered likely to deliver their baby before 35 weeks' pregnancy will also have their care moved.' An implementation team with key stakeholders is being set up to further progress the recommendations from the reviews and any further changes required over the coming months. Dr Pat Nash, regional clinical director at HSE West and North West, said work is under way on the recommendations. 'We are fully committed to implementing the recommendations laid out in the five reviews and will take all steps necessary to ensure we are providing the best care possible to the women and babies receiving care at our hospital,' he said. 'Much of this work is well advanced through the work of the external management team and Women's & Children's Network.' Tony Canavan, regional executive officer at HSE West and North West, said their focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of women and their babies. 'The management team appointed in January to oversee and manage maternity services in Portiuncula University Hospital remains in place and are working on a programme of improvements, many of which relate to the recommendations,' he said. 'Our focus remains on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of women and their babies.' Dr Cliona Murphy, of the National Women's and Infants Programme, added: 'The National Women and Infants Health Programme welcome the publication of the five reviews today. 'We note that some of the commentary in the summary Report relates to the challenges that are faced by the regional maternity services. 'Currently all maternity services are managed through maternity networks, and the specific issues raised in the summary of the five reviews will form part of the considerations for the successor to the National Maternity Strategy, which is set out in the Programme for Government.'
Irish Independent
21-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Galway to hold rally for Adam's Protocols following young man's death – ‘We believed that his passing wouldn't be in vain'
The rally has been organised by Joe Loughnane, brother of the late Alan Loughnane. Back in February, Alan presented himself to the A&E at University Hospital Galway (UHG) in a distressed state, but later that day he left the hospital and took his own life. Since then, Joe Loughnane has been campaigning for hospitals to have a separate emergency department for mental health patients – an initiative called Alan's Protocol in memory of his late brother. However, recently the regional executive officer for HSE West and Northwest Tony Canavan said the protocol will not be implemented. But Joe has no intention of giving up and has organised a rally for Saturday, June 7. The event will start in Eyre Square at 2pm and the crowd will either proceed to the Spanish Arch or to UHG. Joe explained to the Irish Independent: 'Depending on the turnout and the weather, we'll march either the Spanish Arch, if it's a large turnout, but if it's a smaller turnout we're going to march to University Hospital Galway, where there will be contributions from people who bereaved by suicide, doctors and mental health staff themselves.' Joe explained this initial decision from the HSE has left him upset and disappointed as he had been contacting the HSE, TDs and politicians with his and other people's experiences as well as opinions from experts and charities. 'It was very upsetting. Sadly in this country it takes somebody to die before the government realise they have to do something, especially with healthcare issues. 'We believed that Adam's passing wouldn't be in vain, that the government would have realised 'okay we need to do something here', but they seems to just be giving us the same responses. 'And then on Friday Tony Canavan said, 'no, we still want people to go through the emergency department'. ADVERTISEMENT 'To me, as somebody recently bereaved by suicide, what they are basically saying is that they want to continue this process of funnelling everybody through the emergency department, no matter what type of crisis they're in, a physical health crisis or a mental health crisis, in the full knowledge of the fact that those in a physical health crisis are going to get priority over those in a mental health crisis.' Joe explained the HSE does not want to leave the emergency department without consultant psychiatrists. However, he added this is not what Adam's Protocols is about. 'We understand there will be people who self-harmed, obviously someone like that needs to go through the emergency department, because they get the proper healthcare there. But my brother was in perfect physical health, he should have been sent to a mental health A&E. 'Obviously that is going to require extra staffing, but the money is there, and it's literally a measure that will save lives. 'What we realised in the past weeks, months, since Adam's passed, had he just been taken into a room, sat down, given a cup of tea, and someone chat to him, and close and lock the door, he would have been fine and he would have been here today. We know that for a fact. 'Because he was in that busy, overcrowded A&E room of university hospital Galway on a Tuesday afternoon where he was looking around, feeling like a burden, everyone else surrounding him was getting the care and he wasn't, that's why he walked out.' Unfortunately, Adam's story is not an isolated case as over the past three months Joe has been inundated with stories from all over the country. 'I had to stop reading some of them because it's actually quite triggering and traumatic to read some of the stories. They're coming through every day, comments on Instagram and Facebook, people private message me, people email me, it seems to be something that has been babbling up and has been bothering people for decades now. 'A lot of the families are people who lost their loved one 15 years ago, but it was in similar situations, where they've gone to an A&E, but they were dismissed and told to go home and given medication, and sadly that person then ended their life. 'This story seems to be very common. But it's just not talked about. I think a lot of families, because of the stigma around suicide, maybe they didn't feel comfortable talking about it. But I feel like I contributed to break that stigma when I spoke openly about Alan passing three months ago.' He added: 'I know that's happened again sadly to people since Alan passed. That's why we want to make sure this takes place and it changes things.' Talking about actions to make sure that this does not happen again, Joe said that anybody who comes to the hospital in a mental health crisis 'should be given the same care regardless of whether they have health insurance or not, regardless of how much money they have'. Also, immediate checks are required: 'Adam had been an inpatient of University Hospital Galway, so when he presented himself on that day, that should have been checked immediately. And they should have secured him and monitored him. That lack of monitoring, that's replicated hundreds of stories that I have been sent over the last couple of months across the country. He added he is not asking for 'a pie in the sky' and is confident Adam's Protocols could be implemented soon if the HSE and the Government agreed to it. 'This is not something radical, it has been called before. Back in 2020 in Limerick a motion was passed calling for a separate emergency department for mental health patients. And it was passed unanimously. 'In the UK in the last couple of years they started to roll out a 24/7 mental health A&E, they call them urgent care centres, but they don't require any referral, they are for anybody who walks in and it's a completely different environment than an emergency department, within the same hospital. And these are NHS, publicly funded. 'For me it's about presenting examples like that to the government, opposition parties, or whoever, to make them realise this is not a pie in the sky, this is something that has been done in the county right beside us and it can be done here easily too.
Irish Independent
17-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Portiuncula maternity unit reported 69 ‘clinical incidents' early this year as tenth external review into care gets under way
It comes as it emerged a recent baby death at the hospital is now being externally reviewed. It brings to 10 the number of reviews into the care of women and babies now under way at the unit. A new management team was installed by the HSE in January. New figures show the hospital reported 69 clinical incidents over January and February as part of a system of monthly safety statements made individually by 19 maternity units and hospitals. The nature of the cases is not stated, but a clinical incident is an event or circumstance that could have or did result in unnecessary harm to the patient and is logged with a national monitoring system. A spokeswoman for the HSE West and North West said yesterday she could not disclose the cause of death of the baby who recently died. 'We cannot comment on individual cases when to do so might reveal information in relation to identifiable individuals, breaching the ethical requirement on us to observe our duty of confidentiality. An external review process has begun and is currently finalising the terms of reference. We will await the outcome of this review,' she said. In January, it was announced that seven cases of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), which causes a lack of oxygen and blood supply to the brain, in 2024 and early 2025 were being reviewed externally. None of the children died. Another two stillbirths, which happened in 2023, are also being reviewed. We do anticipate receiving a number of reviews shortly. Once completed, the findings of each individual review will be shared with the families involved News of the infant death will lead to renewed concern among parents. Delays in providing answers have also added to anxiety and a number of the reviews were expected to be finalised around February. ADVERTISEMENT Asked about the delay, the HSE spokeswoman said the 'reviews under way are entirely independent and it is important to give them time and space to conclude'. 'We do anticipate receiving a number of reviews shortly. Once completed, the findings of each individual review will be shared with the families involved,' she said. She added an external management team remains in place in to oversee all elements of maternity and neonatal care. 'The team is led by an external consultant obstetrician Dr Mark Skehan and includes a director of midwifery and a senior manager. The director of midwifery post was initially filled on an interim basis, and as planned, a more permanent placement has been made.' Portiuncula went from having one baby being diagnosed HIE in 2023 to six last year – highlighting how the jump in numbers raised concerns. No baby was diagnosed with HIE in 2022 and just one case was reported in 2021. Six of the cases under review involve babies with HIE born in the hospital last year and the seventh was delivered in early January. Six of the babies needed therapeutic cooling treatment to reduce the risk of disability or death. The lead reviewers in the separate reviews are Professor Fergal Malone, Professor Sam Coulter-Smith and Dr Sieglinde Mullers from the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. Shortly after her appointment as Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill visited the hospital and spoke to parents. She said it is 'most important that all appropriate steps are taken to prioritise patient safety and neonatal care at Portiuncula, and in every maternity hospital in Ireland'. 'I will continue to engage with the teams at Portiuncula while we await the completion of the reviews,' she said. A 2018 report in to Portiuncula maternity care was carried out by Professor James Walker, who was professor of obstetrics at the University of Leeds at the time. He led a team that looked at 18 perinatal events in the Galway hospital from 2008 to 2014. The report found significant failings in some incidents, as well as serious errors of management in 10 cases that probably made a difference to the outcome for these babies. Under the system of maternity care, smaller units such as Portiuncula are part of a wider network, with more complex patients referred to larger centres in the region. According to the HSE, while the incidence of therapeutic hypothermia remains a critical concern, there has been a demonstrable reduction in cases. In 2020, there were 76 cases, compared to 53 in 2023. Given the declining birth rate, this reduction may not be statistically significant, but it does indicate progress, it said. It is important to note that HIE, the condition that it treats, can arise from various obstetric complications, it added. This includes placental abruption, uterine rupture, shoulder dystocia, cord prolapse, maternal collapse and foetal haemorrhage. The external investigators are to examine why the babies developed HIE and what problems might have happened during labour and delivery.
