Nenagh hospital becomes a leader in women’s healthcare

Nenagh hospital is set to become one of the leading centres in the country in the delivery of women's healthcare with the official opening of a state of-the-art hub led by a multidisciplinary team working to improve outcomes for women who are living with severe menopausal symptoms and gynaecological and fertility problems.

The Hub for Women's Health, based in the new €1.4 million extension to the outpatients department, will serve women throughout the entire Mid West.

The hub was officially opened by the Minister for Health Stephen Donnolly on Friday last in the hospital where he ruled out any prospect of reopening the emergency department.

He said the new regional hub for women's health would provide the right care for women in the right place and at the right time.

But when asked later by reporters about the prospect of reopening the emergency department in the hospital to take pressure off the ongoing overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick, Mr Donnelly said there would be no reopening of emergency departments in north Tipperary or Clare.

The Minister conceded that there were “unacceptable” levels of patient overcrowding and delays in the Emergency Departmment at University Hospital Limerick, but went on to state: “The clinical view on this is unambiguous, and the doctors would say no. And the reason they would say no is because if you’ve got something seriously wrong with you, and you go into a small hospital – Nenagh has 60 beds – and that doesn’t have all the specialities, and maybe you need one of those specialities, and it’s not there, now you’re in trouble, because now they have to get you to the bigger hospital anyway, and time matters in these cases.”

Mr Donnelly said he had “directed the HSE to significantly increase the number of emergency medicine consultants” at UHL as the Limerick ED was currently struggling with “only eight Emergency Department consultants and there should probably be about 16 so they are not even close to the numbers they need”.

BETTER CARE FOR WOMEN

Addressing a gathering of women's healthcare professionals and staff in the canteen of the hospital, the Minister said that when he was appointed to the health portfolio he told his colleagues in government that he was not interested in making things a little better every year in the area of women's healthcare.

The truth was that Ireland was miles behind many other countries with a similar standard of wealth in this sector. His ambition, and that of the Government, was not just to catch up, but to make Ireland recognised around the world as one of the leading countries when it came to modern, progressive women-centred healthcare.

The Minister said that the spend on provision of women's healthcare services nationally had increased from €4 million two years ago to a full year spend of around €50 million in the current year.

“My view is that what we need now in women's healthcare is a revolution. We're not looking for things to get a bit better. We have to fundamentally change the money, the priority and the resources and the services.”

He added that the new hub in Nenagh, in tandem with 19 other gynaecological clinics planned to be rolled out nationwide, would reduce waiting times of up to a year for women seeking gynaecological services to a waiting time of just days.

“What I am really excited about here today is what you have done to bring all of these healthcare services for women together.” The Minister said the three big elements in terms of services provided by the hub would be in the area of ambulatory gynaecological care, care for women with menopausal symptoms, while the provision of fertility services were also in the pipeline.

Ms Noreen Spillane, Chief Operations Officer, UL Hospitals Group, said the hub would provide an enhanced experienced for patients and improve the patient pathway to reduce the number of visits needed and reduce waiting costs and costs for patients.

She said the Mid West Hospitals Group was delighted to offer the women of the Mid West a one-stop see-and-treat clinic where they would get the treatment they need from a multi-disciplinary team.

Ms Spillane said the recently refurbished heart failure support unit was another great example of top class care being provided at Nenagh hospital in terms of specialist treatment and chronic disease management.

She said the continuing development of ‘model 2’ hospitals like Nenagh was a key priority of the managers within the hospital management group in the Mid West.

TOP CLASS HUB

The Director of the National Women's Programme Director, Kilian McGrane, said nothing like the calibre of the hub had been provided in Ireland before. He said the model being rolled out in Nenagh had real potential. It provided a service in a calm environment that was appropriately designed for women and it ensured timely access to specialist care.

Dr Naro Imcha, Clinical Lead for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UL Hospitals Group, said ambulatory gynaecological care was already up and running in the hub since March of this year under a fantastic multi-disciplinary team of medical and support staff.

The aim was to offer the women visiting the hub seamlessly flowing, efficient and effective care in a single visit.

She said the ambition was to transform women's healthcare, and working in collaboration with GPs, patients would be directly referred to the hub, resulting in a leaner and more caring service for women.

Dr Imcha said the entire team in the UL Hospitals Group is focused on improving patients' experience when they come to Nenagh Hospital and being able to respond quickly to the care needs of women. There was a great sense of responsibility around the project. The hub would improve the efficacy of gynaecological services and further the aims of the Minister and the Government to improve outcomes for women's health in Ireland.

PATIENT FOCUS

Dr Cathy Casey, Consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist, UL Hospitals Group, said the new hub would provide a streamlined patient focused service and would, she felt, transform women's healthcare in the Mid West.

She said she had been working in the care of menopausal women for over 35 years, during which time there had been fairly controversial and turbulent times.

Women's healthcare during much of that time was surrounded by myths, misconceptions and misinformation and left women suffering unnecessarily with a lot of short and longterm health implications and a miserable quality of life, an adverse affect on the lives of their families and personal relationships and a much unrecognised impact on the workplace.

Dr Casey said 75 per cent of menopausal women will suffer significant menopausal symptoms and 25 per cent will experience severe symptoms that will have an adverse impact on their lives for many years to come.

Two third of women said they did not know anything about the menopause before its onset and 75 per cent had sadly stated that support and information for menopause in Ireland is very poor. Therefore there was clearly a need for change and services like those provided in Nenagh would improve the quality of life for women and their longterm health in a hub were care under the multi-disciplinary team was very much targeted to be individualised to for patients.

SPECIAL DAY

Ms Cathrina Ryan, Director of Nursing, Nenagh Hospital said it was a very special and proud day for the everyone in the hospital. The new hub would provide a very valuable service to the people of the Mid West and team at the hospital felt truly privileged to be able to offer such a top class service to the women of the Mid West and the team looked forward to services being further expanded in the hub in the coming months.

CAHILL'S REQUEST

Tipperary’s Government TD, Jackie Cahill who attended the opening said he had requested that the Minister extend the opening hours of A&E services at Nenagh. He said the Minister had agreed to look into the matter.

Deputy Cahill said: “It’s a great day for women’s health services in the Mid West with the official opening of the Regional Hub.”

Deputy Cahill said he spoke to the Minister about concerns of many local people who were in contact with him about the need to extend opening hours at the A&E unit. He also raised what he called "the worrying state of affairs in the Regional Hospital in Limerick".

“I am pleased that the the Minister has agreed that he would take a look at the opening hours for Nenagh’s A&E and I will continue to work with him and keep the pressure on to see more services for Nenagh hospital and less of a reliance on UHL,” Deputy Cahill concluded.