The appointment of three new consultants at Galway University Hospitals will help the facilities develop additional clinical services, the clinical director of the Galway/ Roscommon Hospital Group Dr David O’Keeffe said this week.
The new specialists are Dr Ruth Gilmore, a consultant haematologist, Ms Deirdre Jones, a consultant plastic surgeon and Ms Orla Young, a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon. Two of them are from Galway.
Dr Gilmore is from Moylough and graduated from NUI Galway in 1998. She has a special
interest in coagulation and completed
her postgraduate haematology training in Ireland. She undertook a fellowship in coagulation studies at the National Centre for Hereditary Coagulation Disorders at St James’s Hospital, Dublin.
She said she was delighted to join the team at Galway University Hospitals. “My particular areas of interest include patients with bleeding and clotting disorders as well as paediatrics and obstetric haematology. I look forward to working closely with my colleagues in the hospital to further develop these services.”
A native of Barna, Ms Young graduated from NUI Galway in 1999 and went on to train in general surgery. She subsequently specialised in head and neck surgery. Her MD thesis focused on thyroids and her special interest areas include surgical management of thyroid diseases and head and neck cancer. She returns to Galway from the department of head and neck surgery at the Mayo Clinic, Arizona, where her work focused on laser microsurgery in head and neck cancer.
“I am glad to be back in Galway and looking forward to working with my colleagues in the ear, nose and throat department, to build on the excellent service provided there. I am particularly interested in developing a service to provide laser surgery in early head and neck cancer, in GUH for the west of Ireland.”
Ms Deirdre Jones is also a graduate of NUI Galway and is originally from Tulsk, Co Roscommon. After completing a microsurgery research fellowship in New York University Medical Centre in 2005, she did her higher surgical training in Ireland. In 2009 she began a fellowship in hand, lower limb, and breast reconstruction at the John Radcliffe Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford. She then undertook a microsurgery fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York where she worked exclusively on cancer reconstruction.
Commenting on her appointment, she said she was looking forward to further developing the plastic surgery
service in Galway, especially increasing the role of plastic surgeons in breast cancer reconstruction in the west.
“I will also be bringing plastic surgery services to Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe and Roscommon County Hospital.”
Dr David O’Keeffe welcomed the new consultants to Galway University Hospitals. “Their appointment will enable us not only to support and enhance existing services but to develop additional clinical services in line with our position as a regional centre for the west of Ireland.”
