Five healthcare providers collect national honours at awards event
By Hayden Moore
THERE was plenty of joy at the recent Irish Healthcare Centre Awards as multiple local healthcare providers scooped national accolades.
With 25 group awards up for grabs, five local healthcare providers were honoured with nine awards at the gala in Ballsbridge Hotel last Friday night.
CRC Firhouse Day Centre receive their award
Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) Firhouse Day Centre battled their way through a tough group of five finalists to be named Day Care Centre of the Year.
With 14 members of staff who care for 42 clients, General Manager with CRC Firhouse, Breda Gavagan spoke of their sheer delight with being recognised.
“It’s a huge achievement to be recognised like we have and it’s a credit to our team who work closely with our clients. The clients were so excited to see us win,” she told The Echo.
The clinic has four adapted buses for their clients, who are mostly wheelchair bound. Following their massive coup at the prestigious ceremony, clients and staff alike were out in front of Dáil Éireann striking for improved homecare facilities and respite care.
Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) had to make their way up to the stage on three occasions, with all of its awards falling under the Healthcare Initiatives/Projects categories.
In the Patient Education Lifestyle Project (Hospitals) category, Tallaght University Hospital was awarded for its WALKways initiative
The hospital won the Outpatient Initiative of the Year award for designing an improved model of care for outpatients with functional gastrointestinal disorders and the Patient Education/Lifestyle Project by a Hospital award for their WALKways programme – which was developed for adults with intellectual disabilities to find work experience as a route to access paid employment.
And lastly, TUH was recognised for Patient Safety for their “review and improvement of the total turnaround time for pathology results from a very busy adult emergency department”.
Kiltipper Woods Care Centre, who provide rehabilitation and convalescence for all hospitals, and also cater for ageing residents out of their purpose-built facility, received two awards on the night.
Nursing Home Residential Care Unit of the Year and Clinical Team of the Year winners Kiltipper Woods Care Centre
The care centre, which is located just off the Kiltipper Road in Bohernabreena, was named Nursing Home/Residential Care Unit of the Year before their rehabilitation unit multi-disciplinary clinical team was named Clinical Team of the Year.
The HSE and Jobstown Community were recognised with the Healthcare Initiative/Project for Mental Healthcare award for the Jobstown SafeTalk Project that was started for suicide prevention.
Over the past few years the Jobstown SafeTalk Project has been holding training courses for suicide awareness and earlier this year the HSE, in conjunction with South Dublin County Council, launched the MindmindR app that provided contact details and information for mental health services.
Meanwhile the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA), which has a base in Lucan, received two awards on the night, one for best Healthcare Initiative/Project in Community Care Services for its theatre production of ‘A Pot of Spuds’ over in Mallow and were also awarded Homecare/Assisted Living Provider of the Year.
