TUH Open New Healthcare Location in the Community

Endocrinology, Diabetes & Podiatry Outpatient Clinics Move to Tallaght Town Centre Location

Simms OpeningOctober 8th 2018 The Tallaght University Hospital Endocrinology, Diabetes and Podiatry outpatient services have relocated to the Simms Building in Tallaght. The clinics which started to run today in the new modern facility will provide enhanced treatment for over 12,000 patients that currently using these services each year. This move follows a capital investment of €5m commissioned in collaboration with the HSE. Overall the development provides an additional 15,000 sq. feet of purpose built modern outpatient facilities within 500 metres of the Hospital’s main entrance. 

The move is the first in a series of planned initiatives to relocate suitable outpatient services from the hospital setting and situate them closer to the community. It will result in easier access for patients with underground car parking spaces available as well as a number of buses routes serving the area.

The move to the Simms Building also means that patients will benefit from more efficiently run clinics in an enhanced environment.

Announcing the move, Tallaght University Hospital CEO, David Slevin said, “Given the significant increased population projections for Tallaght in the coming decade, the Hospital has looked at new ways of best delivering its wide-ranging outpatient and inpatient services. We now have the opportunity to deliver an excellent quality outpatient service closer to the community. In addition, the transition of endocrinology, diabetes and podiatry clinics out of the hospital setting will also create more space to see and treat an ever increasing number of patients referred to the Hospital. The relocation of these services is the first in a series of planned moves to bring core healthcare services into the community. The next service due to move to the Simms building is our Neurology Outpatient clinic and this will happen before the end of the year.”

Professor James Gibney, Consultant Endocrinologist and Clinical Lead for Endocrinology from Tallaght University Hospital commented, “These clinics are some of the busiest run by the Hospital and all of the team are looking forward to seeing our patients in this new, modern facility. The clinic has been named the Robert Graves Institute of Endocrinology, after Robert Graves a doctor in the Meath Hospital who was a world renowned teacher and physician. Moving the clinics into the community will enable us to run more efficient clinics for our patients and also provide us with space to continue research into this area of medicine.” 

There are a number of car parking options around the Simms Building including the underground car park of Tallaght Cross and Aldi. There is also parking available in The Square Shopping Centre, which is across the road from the Simms Building. Car parking rates in Tallaght Cross West are €1.50 for 0-1 hour, €2.50 for 2-4 hours and €4 for 5-24 hours. 

Patients can call the Hospital team if they have any questions Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4:30pm on 01 414 3591. 

Ends 

About Tallaght University Hospital
Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) is one of Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospitals, providing child-health, adult, psychiatric and age-related healthcare on one site. The Hospital has 495 adult beds and 67 paediatric bed with 2,600 people on staff. The Hospital is a provider of local, regional and national specialities. It is also a national urology centre, the second largest provider of dialysis services in the country and a regional orthopaedic trauma centre.

TUH is one of the two main teaching hospitals of Trinity College Dublin - specialising in the training and professional development of staff in areas such as nursing, health and social care professionals, emergency medicine and surgery, amongst many others. It is also part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group which serves a population of over 1.2 million across seven counties.

A new satellite centre is to be built at TUH as part of the National Children’s Hospital project and will be a key element of an integrated clinical network for paediatric services nationally.

The Hospital’s Emergency Departments catered for 50,286 Adult Attendances and 32,886 Paediatric Attendances in 2017. A further 291,483 patients were treated through the Hospital’s adult and paediatric outpatient clinics in 2017. The Hospital’s operations are supported by 200 general practitioners in surrounding communities. 

About Robert James Graves
(b. 1796, d.1853, Dublin).  He received his degree from the University of Dublin in 1818.  He was appointed Physician at the Meath Hospital in 1821 which was the golden period of Irish medicine. He was a leader of the Irish, or Dublin, school of diagnosis, which emphasised the clinical observation of patients and which significantly advanced the fields of physical diagnosis and internal medicine.

During his time at the Meath he introduced reforms in medical training.  In addition to teaching traditional textbook medicine, Graves assigned to advanced students the responsibility for diagnosis and treatment of ward patients, under the supervision of the faculty. Like other progressive professors of his times, he gave his lectures in English rather than in Latin. Graves was named regius professor of the Institute of Medicine in Trinity College in recognition of his achievements in education. A founder of the Dublin Journal of Medical Science, he served as one of the journal’s editors until his death. 

Graves was one of the first physicians to fully describe exophthalmic goitre, now called Graves disease. His Clinical Lectures on the Practice of Medicine, published in 1848, are responsible for establishing his enduring reputation. Among the innovations introduced in the lectures were the timing of the pulse by watch and the practice of giving food and liquids to patients with fevers instead of withholding nourishment from them. Graves facetiously suggested that his epitaph should read, “He fed fevers.”