An innovative healthcare solution helping Wexford General Hospital resume on-site essential diagnostic procedures

Wexford General Hospital took delivery of a mobile endoscopy suite from Vanguard Healthcare Solutions back in May this year, in a project managed by the organisation’s partner and distributer, Kildare-based Accuscience Ireland.

The hospital suffered extensive damage in a fire earlier this year, including a partial roof collapse alongside water and fire damage to buildings and medical equipment. The damage extended to ‘large parts’ of the hospital leaving it in need of significant construction and electrical works.

Thankfully no-one was injured in the blaze. All but 29 of the 219 patients on site at the time had to be evacuated or relocated to other facilities and half of the hospital’s beds were closed.

Alongside the accident and emergency department, endoscopy procedures were one of the services at the 270 bed hospital to have been impacted as a result of the fire.

Working alongside Vanguard and Accuscience, the hospital took delivery of a 18m mobile endoscopy suite which is designed to allow for a complete patient pathway from admission to discharge. The facility includes a decontamination suite to reprocess equipment used in the procedures.

The standalone facility was placed in a dedicated area on site connected to the main hospital by a newly purpose built corridor. Patients can attend their appointments without a need to visit the main hospital building. It is due to be on site at the hospital for 12 months.

Patricia Hackett, Operations Manager Clinical Services from Wexford General Hospital said: “Our endoscopy unit was completely destroyed during the fire. The mobile unit is helping us keep essential diagnostic procedures running. It is being used five-days-a-week on average.

“These really are essential procedures and the fire affected our waiting times for them. We needed a solution which could be deployed as quickly as possible.

“When it arrived, it did so seamlessly. There was the need to build a corridor and for the unit to be commissioned and tested, but it was still by far the quickest option to get as full a service up and running as possible.

“We can facilitate as many procedures on the facility as we did previously and are now able to also run the service two Saturdays a month. It really is playing an essential part in maintaining services, managing the waiting lists and helping people be seen in as timely a way as possible. Without it, doing so would have been impossible.”

James McCann, Managing Director at Accuscience said: “We’re delighted to have been able to help Wexford General Hospital resume on-site endoscopy services as they continue to recover from the after-effects of the fire. These are essential diagnostic procedures which are in high demand and we are proud to be supporting the hospital maintain services for the local community in this way,”