March 27th 2017 Tallaght Hospital has reintroduced regular patient visiting hours. Daily visiting hours in the Adult Hospital are from 2pm to 4pm and 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Visiting hours for the Mental Health Unit are from 2pm to 4pm and 6pm to 8pm daily. Visitors to the Intensive and Coronary Care Units are, as always restricted, and at the discretion of the nurses in charge.
In order to prioritise patient safety, visitors are asked to respect the Hospital’s guidelines. Only two visitors are permitted per patient at any one time. In addition, visitors are asked to observe the hand hygiene signs. Visitors should clean their hands when they enter the Hospital, when they arrive on the ward, upon leaving the ward and the Hospital. Also remember to use visitor toilets rather than patient toilets in order to reduce the risk of cross infection.
Visiting is not permitted during mealtimes. This protected time is set aside in order to ensure that patients can eat and enjoy their meals uninterrupted. This is an essential requirement for good nutrition and recovery. Tallaght Hospital asks that visitors respect these arrangements.
Dr. Catherine Wall, Lead Clinical Director at Tallaght Hospital commented; "Visitors are a welcome and important part of a patient’s day. They can bring a lot of happiness and help the recovery process. With the reintroduction of normal visiting hours, we aim to maximise the welfare of our patients and their families to ensure the best care experience possible. We ask all visitors to be aware of visiting times and to respect these, so that patients are also given the important time to rest and enable hospital staff to deliver care uninterrupted.”
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About Tallaght Hospital
Tallaght Hospital is one of Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospitals, providing child-health, mental health and adult healthcare on one site. The Hospital has 495 adult beds and 67 paediatric beds, a staff of 2,600 people and an annual gross budget in excess of €250 million. The Hospital is a provider of local, regional and national specialities. It is a national urology centre, the second largest provider of dialysis services in the country and a regional orthopaedic trauma centre.
Tallaght Hospital is a major teaching hospital of Trinity College Dublin - specialising in the training and professional development of staff in nursing, health and social care, emergency medicine and surgery, amongst many others. The Hospital is 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 Tallaght Hospital as part of the New 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 49,512 Adult Attendances and 33,717 Paediatric Attendances in 2016. A further 252,418 patients were treated through the Hospital’s adult and paediatric outpatient clinics in 2016. The Hospital’s operations are supported by 200 general practitioners in surrounding communities.
