Louth's Fitzpatrick meets with Our Lady Of Lourdes senior management

_{Pictured above L-R: Fiona Brady General Manager, Fiona Floyd Business Manager, Nora Hourigan HIPE Manager, Paul Nadin Maintenance & Technical Services Manager, Mr Sherif El Masry Clinical Director, Ian Broni Facilities & General Services Manager, Colm Kinch HR Manager, Miriam Kelly Risk Manager}

Louth Independent TD Peter Fitzpatrick met with senior management at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda earlier this week, to discuss concerns regarding a number of issues.

Fitzpatrick says a wide range of topics were discussed during the meeting, including new theatres, units and concerns the hospital have over finding staff.

One of the main topics of conversation, according to the Louth deputy, was the proposed name change to Our Lady of Lourdes.  "Senior members of staff have given the commitment to me that the name change is not going to happen in the near future", said Fitzpatrick.

Deputy Fitzpatrick said that at the meeting, they spoke about the hospital’s priorities. The main priority right now, Fitzpatrick was informed, is Norovirus, better known as the winter vomiting bug, the most common and highly contagious stomach bug in Ireland, affecting people of all ages.

Senior management did mention that they are willing to meet with community groups and politicians regarding the name change to discuss it, says Fitzpatrick, "but right now they are focusing on working together to keep hospital services going."

Regarding new theatres in Our Lady of Lourdes, Fitzpatrick says, "it is envisaged that the Hospital will open 5 new theatres by the second quarter of 2019.

He continues, "this will give the Hospital 2 additional theatres - 1 for Paediatric trauma and 1 for Adult trauma.

"This is something that would be widely welcomed and much needed however the opening of these theatres is massively dependent on a huge recruitment drive for theatre Nurses and Anaesthetists both from a national and international perspective.

"The hospital is continuously striving to recruit health care professionals to fill existing vacancies but also to assist them to develop new services.

"Fundamental to the expanding of their services is the ability to attract and recruit highly skilled and educated professionals.

"However, in particular, their geographic closeness to Dublin means that they are indeed competing with the larger Dublin hospitals for those specialist skills particularly in the areas of medicine, nursing and allied health professionals.

"This shall remain a challenge for the hospital into the New Year and beyond", Fitzpatrick concluded.