Funding boost to see Ennis hospital expand services
Funding of over €280,000 has been awarded to Ennis General Hospital. File Picture.
New funding confirmed for Ennis hospital means more patients can be seen at the hospital and new staff recruited to expand the available services.
Funding of €286,000 from the National Treatment Purchase Fund will cover salaries for extra nurses, consultants and other staff, including medical scientists who run tests for Covid-19 and other viruses. The funding also means almost 50 extra patients can be seen every week at the Medical Assessment Unit in the hospital.
Independent TD for Clare Michael McNamara said: “We have this group of hospitals and the only way to decrease overcrowding in Limerick is to use the existing bricks and mortar we have in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s.
University Hospital Limerick takes emergency and complex surgeries from the region. Ennis hospital, along with Nenagh in Tipperary and St John’s in Limerick, offers day clinics through a Medical Assessment Unit and has 50 in-patient beds.
Surgeons and other medical staff travel from Limerick hospital to the smaller Model 2 hospital for clinics and minor operations. But Mr McNamara said, in his experience, these are frequently cancelled at short notice and he welcomed the addition of new staff for the Co Clare hospital.
He said: “The CEO of the UL Hospitals Group has informed me the MAU team and Ennis Hospital will continue to work closely with their GP colleagues in County Clare and throughout the region.”
A spokesman for the UHL group said this expansion will reduce congestion at the main Limerick hospital.
He said GPs can already book in extra patients and described the MAU system as “particularly suitable for elderly people and patients suffering from chronic conditions, who will be seen and treated more quickly than they would in a busy ED.”
Under Dr Tom Pierce, the hospital hopes to see all patients within an hour of arrival, with treatment and discharge on the same day if appropriate.
This will not change how emergencies including heart attacks are treated, as ambulances will still take those patients to Limerick. But increasing the number of patient slots in Ennis from 156 to 204 means more people can access day-procedures like endoscopies closer to home.
The seaside town of Kilkee is just 55 minutes from Ennis but 80 minutes drive from Limerick hospital. Patients living in north Clare in Fanore have less than one hour to travel for appointments in Ennis.
