Mercy University Hospital

Mercy University Hospital Campus Study 2020

Details: Last Updated: Thursday, 30 January 2020 09:01

Mercy University Hospital (MUH) Campus

‘A Plan for the Delivery of Expanded Clinical Services and Facilities at MUH (and Distillery Fields) Cork’

Mercy University Hospital, Cork has submitted to the Department of Health/HSE/South/South West Hospital Group, an ambitious infrastructural and clinical development plan that will meet the current and future health needs of the people of Cork and the wider region. This plan is a phased 5-15 year strategic development plan and incorporates both clinical and infrastructural proposals which have been developed in a proactive manner to support the transformation of healthcare in Cork as envisaged in Sláintecare and Ireland 2040. This plan will form the basis of the MUH’s submission for the development of an elective hospital in Cork.

Continuing in its role as Cork’s second largest hospital, the plan sees the phased quadrupling of the hospital on its current 16 acre inner-city site providing an additional 68,000 square metres of expanded capacity including a doubling of inpatient beds to 400 and day beds to 110, and significantly increased theatre, diagnostic and clinic capacity. The vision for the MUH campus incorporates a modern general hospital supporting a new elective facility.

MUH is fully committed to ensuring optimum utilisation of its site capacity to serve Cork’s healthcare needs, in whatever form required for the future, and remains open to ideas on how best the overall combined 16 acre MUH site can be used to meet the healthcare needs of patients of the South /South West Hospital Group (SSWHG). The hospital is also in active discussions with University College Cork in respect of development plans for the 12.5 acre Distillery Fields site (jointly owned by MUH and University College Cork (UCC)) and designated for the purposes of developing academic and healthcare facilities) and a joint master plan has been agreed in principle.

The plan is visionary and complements and supports other healthcare providers in acute, community and primary care. It also strengthens the hospital’s relationship with its primary academic partner, University College Cork.

The next stage of the process for MUH is to advance discussions with the Department of Health/HSE/SSWHG in respect of securing agreement on the phasing framework for the development and the concomitant financial approvals

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My Personal Health Passport© - for Paediatric Patients

Details: Last Updated: Friday, 08 July 2016 11:54

So What Is ‘My Personal Health Passport©’ - for paediatric patients?

‘My Personal Health Passport©’ - for paediatric patients provides a snapshot of information about a child in an informal and easy to read manner. Information is written in the first person highlighting the uniqueness and personality of each child to the reader. The passport is presented in an A4 sized folder with colour-coded signposts which quickly direct the reader to the information they require. Easy-to- read symbols are used throughout. Passport alert stickers are provided for patient files to alert staff that a child has a passport. Each passport comes with a booklet explaining how to fill in the passport in order to help make it a valuable resource.

Once given to a child, the passport remains their property. Children and parents are encouraged to bring the passport to all services they attend such as hospital appointments, emergency department presentations, community services, therapy appointments and respite.

The passport was developed for use by children with:

Severe, complex multiple disabilities.
Intellectual, physical, sensory disabilities.
Complex medical healthcare needs.
Chronic illnesses.
Communication difficulties.

Using a passport has many potential benefits. These include ensuring information given is accurate, promoting person-centered care, it quickly orientates new staff about a child, reduces the repetition of information sought by healthcare professionals, allows the child’s voice to be heard and is useful at times of transition.

This passport reduces the amount of time parents spend repeating the same information to healthcare providers, thus reducing stress and anxiety.

Where Did ‘Passports’ Originate?

The term ‘passports’ was coined in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1992. Passports developed were focused at children with communication difficulties. Today various types of passports are used across adult and paediatric settings in the UK. Up to now in Ireland, parents, therapists, schools and disability services had to utilise templates or compile their own passports within organisations. ‘My Personal Health Passport©’ for paediatric patients is the first officially launched health passport for paediatrics in the Republic of Ireland.

Eimear Daly, Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) at Mercy University Hospital states: "Having worked in the emergency department of a children’s hospital I met many parents of children with intellectual disabilities and associated complex healthcare needs. Parents reported how stressful and exhausting they found having to recall their child’s birth and medical history to healthcare professionals each time they presented to hospital. On commencing my post as CNS in Paediatric Intellectual Disability here in Cork, I wanted to develop a health passport for children with complex disabilities and healthcare needs. I collaborated with Ms. Roisin Kinahan - Speech and Language Therapist from Brothers of Charity Services and consulted with speech and language therapists from COPE Foundation and Mercy University Hospital. Parents were also involved in the review process and were asked for their anticipated expectations of how using a passport could help their children on a daily basis. Responses received were enormously positive. Following the launch of ‘My Personal Health Passport’ - for paediatric patients in April 2012, initial feedback has been hugely positive from both parents and healthcare professionals."

Funding for this project was kindly granted by the ‘Kids Fund’ of the Mercy University Hospital Foundation.

Should you require a passport, have any queries or feedback regarding ‘My Personal Health Passport©’ - for paediatric patients, please contact Ms. Eimear Daly, CNS Paediatric Intellectual Disability (contact details below).

‘My Personal Health Passport©’ - for paediatric patients replacement inserts are available to download by clicking here. Users can type directly into the passport inserts by clicking on the relevant text box. Users can save their passport to their own computers allowing changes to be made and printed as required.

The booklet on ‘How to Fill in My Personal Health Passport’ - for paediatric patients is available by clicking here.

Contact Details

Telephone: 086-041 0729

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