New cystic fibrosis facilities at CUH ‘no more than the kids deserve’

“It’s no more than the kids deserve,” said Joe Browne, founder of the charity that has single-handedly transformed cystic fibrosis facilities for both children and adults attending Cork University Hospital.

Joe was at the new CF paediatric outpatient unit in CUH yesterday for the official handover of €474,000 — money that funded four CF treatment rooms, all en-suite, as well as the gym essential to children with CF who require physiotherapy.

The facilities are “state of the art”, according to consultant paediatrician Dr David Mullane.

“The air changes are the quality of what you would find in an operating theatre, killing off any airborne infection and infrared lights that come on at night time kill any surface bacteria,” said Dr Mullane.

Professor Geraldine McCarthy, chair of the South/Southwest Hospital group (SSWHG), said Joe’s fundraising charity, Build4Life, had done “a mammoth job”, pulling in the bones of €4m towards CF facilities at the hospital.

She said the outpatient unit “will be put to good use for the children of Cork and the region”.

In fact it was of such a high standard it “needs to be replicated”, said Prof McCarthy.

Dr Mullane said it was “a huge improvement on what we had”.

“There’s no way it would have happened without Joe and we will all reap the benefits,” he said.

Gerry O’Dwyer, chief executive of the SSHWG , said he wanted to acknowledge all the fundraising Build4Life has done.

Joe, whose son Pádraig has CF, said it was “great to see the place finally open”.

“It will remove the worry and burden for families, knowing the risk of cross-infection is eliminated,” he said.

Up to 110 children with CF attend paediatric CF services at CUH, from Cork and the wider region.

Build4Life’s latest donation is in addition to funding and equipping the adult CF outpatient clinic (opened in 2011) and funding and equipping of the adult CF inpatient and general respiratory ward (opened in 2015).

Even though the charity wound down earlier this year, further monies have been set aside for paediatric inpatient beds — CUH is hoping for €17m to build an 80-bed inpatient unit which would include beds for children with CF.

Yesterday families and relatives of patients with CF were among those at CUH celebrating the official opening of the facility, among them six-year-old Isabel Crowley, whose two-year-old brother Rossa has CF, and Pamela O’Connor, who successfully campaigned for state reimbursement of Kalydeco, a wonder drug for the treatment of CF.

Families and relatives of people with CF, alongside doctors and health experts, at the new unit in CUH.