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Dr James Reilly TD chatting with Geraldine McCarthy, chairperson South/South West Hospital Group on his visit to Mallow General Hospital this week. Also present are Mary Owens (Director of Nursing), Minister of State Sean Sherlock TD and Tom Barry TD. Photo: Gerard McCarthy

Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly TD officially opened the newly built Endoscopy and Medical Assessment Units at Mallow General Hospital this week.

On behalf of Mallow General Hospital, Prof Geraldine McCarthy chair of the South/South West Hospital Group said: "Mallow General Hospital is playing a significant role in delivering appropriate, safe and quality services to the local community and as part of the overall re-organisation of acute services in the South is now performing procedures that would previously have been done in the large hospitals in Cork city.”

The build was part of a €4.5m capital investment in Mallow General Hospital, which opened in 2013 and consists of a two-storey extension with the Medical Assessment Unit on the ground floor and a replacement Endoscopy Suite on the first floor.

MEDICAL ASSESSMENT UNIT

The eight-bed Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) is open seven days a week from 8am to 8pm, treating patients referred directly by their GP/SouthDoc, who are suffering from a recent onset of symptoms such as breathlessness, chest pain or blackouts. The unit only accepts patients referred by their GP or SouthDoc to ensure that only patients suitable for treatment present at this Unit.

Patients referred to the MAU will be seen by a senior doctor within an hour of arrival who has ready access to diagnostics such as x-rays, blood tests, scans, etc.

Ms Mary Owens, Director of Nursing at Mallow General Hospital said that during its first year in operation, the Medical Assessment Unit has treated an average of 75 new patients weekly which amounts to over 4,000 new patients and 1,000 return patients annually.

“2,000 endoscopy procedures were performed at Mallow General Hospital in 2013. We anticipate that this figure will increase by 50% over the next 12 months.

"The extra capacity in our new state-of-the-art, purpose-built endoscopy suite allows us to provide elective endoscopy services to the region. We are currently averaging 55 procedures per week. We have started a process in the endoscopy suite to gain accreditation from the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy," Ms Owens concluded.

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