The much-anticipated new endoscopy suite opened at Mallow General Hospital this week as part of a €4.5 million capital investment in the hospital. Dr. Neil Cronin, Consultant Physician and clinical lead for the new unit at the hospital, welcomed the opening of the endoscopy suite and said, “We have been working towards re-organising services at Mallow General Hospital over the last number of years. Part of this was a major extension to Mallow General Hospital for a replacement endoscopy suite and a new medical assessment unit. The management team is pleased that the new build is now complete, which brings the re-organisation of services at the hospital near to completion. The hospital is now in a very strong position to continue delivering healthcare services to benefit patients, staff and the local community in Mallow and north Cork.”
The new suite is a modern facility with two procedures rooms, a first-stage recovery room and a discharge lounge, which replaces the existing endoscopy facility. It has the capacity to do an additional 1,000 endos-copies annually. Currently there are approximately 2,000 endoscopies per year performed at Mallow General Hospital, which means that the hospital now has the capacity to do in excess of 3,000 annually.
The opening of the new endoscopy suite follows on from the re-organisation of other services. A Local Injury Unit (LIU) and Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) opened in March 2013. Both are now operating well and treating increasing patient numbers