University Hospital Galway has secured additional funding to improve on its diagnostic services.
The funding will be used to secure additional capacity for patient diagnostic services in anticipation of a surge in demand over the coming weeks.
UHG is one of nine critically overcrowded public hospitals, and five other private facilities, that have been allocated €1 million in funding from the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
The funding comes into effect today and will last until the end of January to to help with the winter crisis.
According to the Irish Times the money will used to secure diagnostic services at private facilities for patients who present at the Emergency Department.
It will also be used to boost the diagnostic abilities of the radiology department and other area under pressure.
Other diagnostic procedures and surgeries that will be covered by the emergency funding include angiograms, endoscopies and transcatheter aortic valve implantations.
The department of health said the level of funding to individual hospitals will be determined by the NTPF.
It added that the NTPF and HSE will review this emergency support no later than February 7, with the option to extend it subject to the department’s approval.
The full list of institutions which will receive additional funding is: Mater hospital; St Vincent’s University Hospital; Tallaght Hospital; Naas General Hospital; Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore; Galway University Hospital; University Hospital Limerick; Cork University Hospital; University Hospital Waterford; St James’s Hospital; Beaumont Hospital; Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda; St Luke’s General Hospital, Kilkenny; and Letterkenny University Hospital.
