Extra 4,000 endoscopies to be carried out in TUH

TALLAGHT University Hospital (TUH) has announced plans to carry out an additional 4,300 endoscopy procedures a year.

These will take place in the newly opened Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Diseases.

The new development which is located within the hospital, represents an overall investment of over €1.7 million.

TUH has been able to open this new unit by repurposing space which became free after day surgeries (where patients return home the same day) were moved into a  new surgical facility, just opposite the hospital in Tallaght called the Reeves Day Surgery Centre (RDSC).

The new Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Diseases within the hospital will encompass the Endoscopy & Gastroenterology Departments at TUH, which have developed innovative new services.

These new services include Dietitian-led Gut Therapy for IBS, Hi-Resolution Oesophageal Physiology, Liver Elastography and being established as the national lead centre for Capsule Endoscopy and the study of H.pylori resistance.

Prof Colm O’Móráin still provides leadership working full-time as the director of the HSE National Clinical Programme for Gastroenterology.

Lucy Nugent, CEO of TUH, explains, “The newly opened Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Disease will consist of two new procedure rooms and a post-procedure scope washroom.

“This will significantly increase our capacity to perform both oesophageal endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures.

“The timing of the opening of the Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Disease coincides with the hospital celebrating our 25th anniversary.

“This much-needed expansion of endoscopy services demonstrates how the hospital continues its 25-year tradition of developing services and adopting new treatments for the benefit of patients.”

Prof Anthony O’Connor Clinical Lead of the Department of Gastroenterology at TUH said: “Professor Colm O’Móráin, was one of the greatest Irish clinician-scientist of his or any era, a true trailblazer who established the gastroenterology unit here where he worked for many years before retiring from the hospital in 2011.

“However, he still provides leadership working full-time as the director of the HSE National Clinical Programme for Gastroenterology.

“Among other achievements, Professor O’Móráin was the first to prove that duodenal ulcers could be cured by antibiotics and later in his career started bowel screening in Ireland, which was piloted here in Tallaght before being rolled out nationally.

“It is both a great privilege and a responsibility for us to carry his legacy by continuing the great work he started in the new centre we are naming in his honour today.”