The Galway Clinic
Excellence in Patient Care
Location:
The Galway Clinic is situated on the outskirts of Galway City on the Martin Roundabout in Doughiska and it opened to provide health care services on June 29, 2004. It was the first independently funded hospital to be opened in Ireland in twenty years and it attracted much media coverage and attention and visitors.
Mission Statement:
To improve the health and quality of life of the individuals and communities served.
The Clinic:
The clinic is a community hospital and provides twenty four hour health care services. Though the ethos of the Clinic is Roman Catholic we welcome patients of all faiths and cultures. There are in excess of Physicians and Surgeons who have admitting and operating privileges and some have Consultant Suites within the Clinic. The NTPF office assists in reducing the waiting time for patients in the Public System, by providing an efficient, effective and satisfying service to those patients referred to us at the Galway Clinic. The process includes dealing with patient referrals from public hospitals to the Galway Clinic. Referring hospitals include University College Hospital Galway (UCHG), Mayo General, Sligo General, Letterkenny, Tullamore, Beaumont Hospital, Cappagh Hospital and the Mater Misericordiae Hospital.
The Clinic has an occupancy rate of 95% and an average length of stay of 3.6 days. It has 146 in-patient beds; eight of which are ICU beds and the remaining 138 are on five in-patient units (Mother Teresa Unit, O’Malley Unit, Freyer Unit, John Paul II Unit and Our Lady of Knock Unit). There is a Same Day Surgery unit and Emergency Room. There are seven operating suites, an endoscopy suite, a cath lab and an oncology day unit. Diagnostic modalities include CT, PET/CT, and MRI among others.
The People:
The Clinic is governed by the Board of Directors and an Executive Team. The Execuitve Team comprises of Chief Executive, Medical Director, Senior Executive, Matron, Chief Financial Officer, General Manager, Human Resources Manager and Business Development Manager. There are 390 full time equivalent employees, most of whom live locally having returned from national and overseas positions.
The Services:
The Clinic provides general medical, surgical and specialty services to address the main causes of premature mortality in Ireland – cancer and . They include and , Cancer Care – Chemotherapy and . Also provided, among others are eye surgery, general surgery and surgery for high volume community diagnoses such as Orthopaedics, Government funded care is also provided via the National Treatment Purchase Fund so that patients from waiting lists from the public hospitals are assessed and treated. The Clinic also provides a seven day service operating daily from 10am-7pm.
Competition:
The Galway Clinic has introduced competition into the health care environment by removing the perception of exclusivity without compromising the delivery of medical excellence to all its patients. The Clinic is a community hospital ensuring a one tier level of service is delivered to the Western Region. Leading practitioners already practising in the Western region will be complemented by medical colleagues returning from leading centres abroad to provide the most up to date treatment in the world.
Education:
Education plays a major role in the day to day agenda of the hospital. This will serve to enhance and add value to the practice and expand the knowledge base within the organisation leading to an environment of continuous improvement.