THE Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital, who have collected funds to improve facilities at the hospital for the last 30 years, have now embarked on a new drive which will help speed up theatre surgeries.
Last weekend volunteers took up their annual church gate collection in Donegal and once again thanked the public for their generosity.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week Friends PRO Paddy Rooney explained that the funds will be used, as previously, to help transport patients to and from Donegal to St Luke’s Hospital for radiotherapy and to respond to ad hoc requests for assistance from acute and secondary care services associated with LUH.
€10,000 will be donated to the Irish Community Air Ambulance fund.
As part of an innovative new development in consultation with hospital management, the Friends will contribute towards the first phase €250,000 target to implement the Digital Theatre Development.
“We have agreed this major project with hospital management and in consultation with clinical director of the Perioperative Service Mr Kenneth Oakinen.
He came forward with this proposal which will, among other things, speed up the throughput in theatres.
Different types
“There are many different types of surgery being carried out in theatres with a whole range of clinicians. They all have their own equipment. This requires a lot of plug-ins and moving cables manually. The digital system will eliminate all that manual change over. It will monitor the welfare of the patients, cut down turn-over time, improve safety and reduce the likelihood of adverse incidents. It is hoped to raise this total of €500,00 over a two to three year period,” Mr Rooney said.
He added that the Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital would like “to thank all our volunteers who took up the annual church gate collection outside many churches in Donegal last weekend. We would also like to thank the people for their generous support of the collection.
The Irish Community Air Ambulance is a charity that works in partnership with the National Ambulance Service, playing a significant role in Donegal funding a Critical Care Rapid Response service staffed by Emergency Medicine Specialist, Dr Gerry Lane.
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