(June 13th 2019) There were over 420,000 patient episodes of care delivered at Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) last year, according to the Hospital annual report for 2018 published today. The number of Adult Emergency Department attendances increased by 2% over the previously rear bringing the total to over 51,000. Admissions of adult patients totalled 18,694 with an increase in acuity, age and complexity of patients. There were over 32,400 attendances at the Children’s Emergency Department and over 5,574 child admissions.
Tallaght University Hospital, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018, is one of the country’s largest acute teaching hospitals and a centre of excellence for a large number of specialties.
On the publication of her first report as Chief Executive Ms. Lucy Nugent commented “The publication of our annual report provides us with a very important opportunity to showcase the work that goes on in the Hospital. Staff are constantly innovating to improve patient care, quality and safety, introducing efficiencies to tackle waiting lists with limited resources. The 2018 has plenty of examples of this innovation and positive outcomes for our patients, one such example is the reduced inpatient waiting lists reduced to their lowest level in three years.
The ethos of the Hospital is grounded in working with and for the community through prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation and I want to pay tribute to our world class dedicated and committed staff for their work in 2018 in the Hospital and the community and look forward to what we can achieve in 2019.”
Commenting on the 2018 report, TUH, Chair of the Board Liam Dowdall said “TUH is not just an acute Hospital, it always aims to reach out to the community which it has been an integral part over the last two decades. Community engagement is vital to the work of the Hospital and I am very proud of the expansion and development of that engagement outlined in the report. Moving the Hospital’s Endocrinology, Diabetes and Podiatry clinics into the SIMMS building last autumn was an important milestone for the Hospital. Moving these clinics which cater for over 12,000 of our patients is the first in a series of developments which will bring specialty clinical services into the community. It is just one of the many steps that the Hospital will be taking as we work towards developing a sustainable modern, healing healthcare environment.”
Writing in the report, Chairman of Tallaght University Hospital Board, Liam Dowdall said he wanted to take the opportunity to thank hospital staff for the enthusiasm and dedication which they brought to their work each day, often in challenging circumstances. He was delighted to see this recognised in awards and honours which they had won nationally and internationally in 2018.
The Hospital works closely with the local community and a research supported by the Meath Foundation carried out among residents of the Tallaght area and released in 2018, revealed satisfaction with the Hospital at an unprecedently high level of 86%. The study by Professor Brendan Kelly, Professor of Psychiatry at TCD and Consultant Psychiatrist at TUH, showed that this 86% satisfaction rate with the Hospital had increased from 74% in 2014. Satisfaction rate with the Hospital’s Emergency Department came in at over 80% which was remarkable, since satisfaction with Emergency Departments is traditionally low.
A copy of the annual report is available through this link.
About Tallaght University Hospital
TUH is one of Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospitals, adult, psychiatric and age-related healthcare on one site. The Hospital has 495 adult beds with 3,000 people on staff. The Hospital is a provider of local, regional and national specialties. It is also a national urology centre, the second largest provider of dialysis services in the country and a regional orthopaedic trauma centre. The Hospital also has 67 paediatric beds under the governance of Children’s Health Ireland and 52 mental health beds under HSE governance.
