For more than half a century, a highly skilled cadre of specialised hospital staff have cared for the most complex and critically ill patients in Galway.
Last week more than 100 former staff members who manned Galway’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU ) since the early 1970s met up at a special reunion at the Connacht Hotel.
Nurses, porters and healthcare assistants attended, some of whom worked in the original Intensive Care Unit which began life as a small, four-bed ward alongside the Regional Hospital’s operating theatres in 1972.
A designated ICU was created in 1976 consisting of seven beds under the clinical supervision of Prof Padraig Keane, Dr Peter O’Beirne and Dr Patricia Comer.
Great changes later took place in the late 1990s and early 2000. The ICU relocated three times until it settled in its present location. Staffing and bed capacity increased, equipment became more specialised and the renamed Critical Care Department became paperless.
Post Graduate education for nursing staff was developed in the University of Galway in the early 2000s. Facilities for relatives of critical patients were developed thanks to fund-raising and substantial donations from families who had used the service.
The Critical Care Department today consists of a 12-bed general ICU, a six-bed Cardio-Thoracic ICU, a six-bed High Dependency Unit and a four-bed post-anaesthetic care unit.
An Outreach Service has been developed whereby Advanced Nurse Practitioners attend the deteriorating patient on the ward and provide care, or advance further care in a timely fashion.
The Critical Care Department is proud to serve the most ill population in the Saolta Hospital Group.
