Extra space secured to cope with Covid-19
By Mary Dennehy
TALLAGHT University Hospital has received additional space from the onsite Children’s Hospital to help staff cope with a surge in critical care needs due to rising Covid-19 admissions.
This week, Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) has thanked Children’s Health Ireland for providing its adult services with the temporary use of its inpatient beds on Oak Ward, which has created additional capacity to deliver critical care.
Tallaght University Hospital
Despite the provision of some space to adult services, the Children’s Hospital at Tallaght is open and continuing to operate as normal.
In a statement to The Echo, a spokesperson for Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) said: “We in CHI are committed to supporting our clinical colleagues in TUH during this crisis while maintaining essential paediatric services (emergency, OPD and inpatient care) for our community in Tallaght.
“While the situation is changing, we wish to advise our families that our children’s services are open.
“Our Emergency Care Unit will continue to provide its emergency service 24/7 to our local community.
“We continue to provide inpatient care and day care.
“Our OPD [Out Patient Department] is also open providing virtual/ remote (telephone/video) clinics and, where clinically indicated, face to face clinics.
“Some theatre access and some face-to-face clinics are reduced and we are monitoring and managing this closely on a daily basis.”
The spokesperson added: “By reconfiguring our service in this way, we are contributing to sharing the burden of this pandemic response.
“Based on the modelling available, we anticipate that this will last approximately six to eight weeks.”
Like hospitals right across the country, TUH is experiencing an increase in admissions due to a rise in Covid-19 infections.
In a comment to The Echo on Tuesday, TUH said: “Due to the ongoing pressure on space, we are most grateful for the ongoing support of CHI at Tallaght in providing the adult services with the additional space of their Oak Ward which provides us with an additional surge critical care space.”
Outpatient services
To manage the situation and help prevent further spread of Covid-19, in the community, some adult outpatient services have been postponed at Tallaght University Hospital.
“Regretfully, due to the rising numbers of Covid-19 infection rates in the community, some outpatient services have been postponed since Thursday last [January 7]”, TUH told The Echo.
“All patients will be contacted regarding the rescheduling of their appointment.
“Only patients who are contacted directly by the Hospital should attend for their appointment.
“We are taking these measures to protect patients, staff and the wider community from the further spread of Covid-19 and we greatly appreciate the understanding and support of our community at this time.”
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