Portiuncula Hospital is a public hospital located in Ballinasloe, County Galway

County Galway

County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...

, Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. It is managed by the Irish Government's Health Service Executive

Health Service Executive

The Health Service Executive is responsible for the provision of healthcare providing health and personal social services for everyone living in Ireland, with public funds. The Executive was established by the Health Act, 2004 and came into official operation on January 1, 2005...

 and provides in-patient and out-patient orthopaedic services for the population of East Galway, Roscommon

Roscommon

Roscommon is the county town of County Roscommon in Ireland. Its population at the 2006 census stood at 5,017 . The town is located near the junctions of the N60, N61 and N63 roads.-History:...

, the Midlands and the Mid-West. In 2008, the hospital served 39,462 out-patients, and 11,387 in-patients, with an average stay of 4.4 nights. In 2008, 65.0% of all admissions were via the emergency department. The hospital saw 6,398 day cases and 2,168 live births in the same year.

Services

The hospital provides 195 in-patient beds and 25 day-case beds. In-patient services include general medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, cardiology

Cardiology

Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...

, dermatology

Dermatology

Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin and its diseases, a unique specialty with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist takes care of diseases, in the widest sense, and some cosmetic problems of the skin, scalp, hair, and nails....

, endocrinology

Endocrinology

Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...

, oncology

Oncology

Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...

, general surgery

General surgery

General surgery, despite its name, is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal organs, e.g., intestines including esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland . They also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft...

, dental surgery

Dental surgery

Dental surgery is any of a number of medical procedures that involve artificially modifying dentition, in other words surgery of the teeth and jaw bones.-Types:Some of the more common are:...

, maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedics, otorhinolaryngology, paediatric surgery, urology

Urology

Urology is the medical and surgical specialty that focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females, and on the reproductive system of males. Medical professionals specializing in the field of urology are called urologists and are trained to diagnose, treat, and manage patients with urological...

, emergency medicine

Emergency medicine

Emergency medicine is a medical specialty in which physicians care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute...

, obstetrics and gynaecology

Obstetrics and gynaecology

Obstetrics and gynaecology are the two surgical–medical specialties dealing with the female reproductive organs in their pregnant and non-pregnant state, respectively, and as such are often combined to form a single medical specialty and postgraduate training programme...

, neonatology

Neonatology

Neonatology is a subspecialty of pediatrics that consists of the medical care of newborn infants, especially the ill or premature newborn infant. It is a hospital-based specialty, and is usually practiced in neonatal intensive care units...

, paediatrics, anaesthesia, and radiology

Radiology

Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...

.

Waiting times

As of April 2009, the National Treatment Purchase Fund listed the following waiting times for procedures:

Surgical

• adult surgical patients waiting 3–6 months: 0
• adult surgical patients waiting 6–12 months: 0
• adult surgical patients waiting over 12 months: 0
• child surgical patients waiting 3–6 months: 0
• child surgical patients waiting 6–12 months: 0
• child surgical patients waiting over 12 months: 0

Medical

• adult medical patients waiting 3–6 months: 0
• adult medical patients waiting 6–12 months: 0
• adult medical patients waiting over 12 months:0
• child medical patients waiting 3–6 months: 0
• child medical patients waiting 6–12 months: 0
• child medical patients waiting over 12 months: 0

Hygiene

Independent audits rated hygiene levels as 80% satisfactory in 2005, rising to 82% in 2006. Hospital-acquired infection

Nosocomial infection

A nosocomial infection , also known as a hospital-acquired infection or HAI, is an infection whose development is favoured by a hospital environment, such as one acquired by a patient during a hospital visit or one developing among hospital staff...

 affected 3.8% of patients in 2007, with a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus...

(MRSA) infection rate of 0.06 per 1,000 bed days in 2007.