The appointment of 80 new nurses to Galway University Hospitals (UHG and Merlin Park ) will mean that beds closed due to staffing shortages can be reopened and access can be restored to five day services at Merlin Park’s Hospital 1 facility.
That was the good news this week from Anne Cosgrove, the chief operations officer with the Saolta University Health Care Group which runs the public hospitals in the west and north-west of the country.
She was replying to a question from Cllr Donal Ó Cualáin who wanted to know what plans hospital management have in place to address the issues of hospital overcrowding, the high numbers of patients on trolleys, and staff shortages in light of the expected surge in patient numbers during winter.
Key priority
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Ms Cosgrove stated that Saolta recently recruited 33 international nurses and 47 pre-registration student nurses. “With the newly recruited staff, we can reopen closed beds due to staffing shortages and restore access to five day services in Hospital 1 Merlin.”
She outlined that patient flow is a key priority of winter planning. The focus will be on unscheduled care, such as patient flow co-ordination and extended diagnostic services, as well as scheduled care, for example, using the National Treatment Purchase Fund to address waiting lists. Maintaining virtual out-patient department clinics to increase capacity will also be top of Saolta’s list.
Planning for winter
“We are finalising winter plans which include the following resources to facilitate improved patient flow within the hospital and will fit with the national winter plan due to be released. We currently utilise some private capacity in Bon Secours Hospital in Galway to support frailty services. We will be seeking to increase our access to private hospitals in relation to diagnostics and any potential bed capacity. We actively manage delayed discharges to ensure they are at a minimum.
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“The replacement cardio thoracic [facility] is in progress and is expected to be completed in 2022. Plans are also progressing to install a third CT [CAT scan machine] in the clinical research facility in this quarter for completion in December/January.”
She added that a replacement MRI scanner will be installed by the end of this year at UHG. There will be two scanners in operation then to assist with capacity. “We are looking at ways to address waiting list through NTPF pathways, eg, endoscopy weekend initiative.”
