New baby care and MRI units underway at Cavan Hospital

Outlining the new baby care unit, Dermot Monaghan, the Cavan & Monaghan Hospital Group Manager, said that it is a significant development for the people of Cavan and Monaghan. '(It) will address patient safety, patient comfort, infection control issues and space deficits within the current service. The service design will provide the services with a high quality, high spec and patient friendly facility to meet the needs of the acutely ill babies and their parents. There has been significant involvement in the project by senior medical and nursing staff at the hospital,' he said. The Special Care Baby Unit at Cavan has occupied its current location on the Maternity ward since the late 90s. Since that time delivery rates in the maternity unit have increased from approximately 850 infants per year to 1400 infants per year and this year we expect to deliver around 2000 infants. Extend The need to extend and reconfigure the unit has become increasingly apparent over the past two years as a result of a number of factors, the main ones being increased occupancy, overcrowding and infection control issues. The new Special Care Baby Unit will include an expanded floor space in order to accommodate the cot spaces, an additional dedicated isolation facility within the SCBU hand-washing lobby at the entrance to SCBU and a larger, centrally-located nurse"s station. Work has also commenced to provide a new purpose built unit, to house the new MRI Scanner at the hospital. Funding of €900,000 for this purpose built unit has been allocated by the HSE who will be working in partnership with the Friends of Cavan General and the executors of the Blume Will. Last year, the HSE and the Cavan Monaghan Hospital Group were delighted to accept the very generous donation of €1 million from Brendan Murray on behalf of the estate of the late Angela and Nicky Blume (RIP). This donation will be used to purchase an MRI Scanner for the Cavan Monaghan Hospital Group. Mr. Monaghan said that the provision of an MRI Unit at Cavan Hospital will mean that patients will no longer have to travel to the Regional MRI Unit at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. 'It is a substantial boost to the attractiveness of the hospital in the recruitment and retention of well trained radiologists and will fit in with the overall strategic aims and objectives for the development of health services in the North East,' he said.