Our heroes are ready for the fight of our lives
SUH staff pictured on Monday morning including medical and nursing, health and social care workers, health care assistants, catering, housekeeping, portering and security, maintenance , general managers, nursing and midwifery managers, clerical and administration, chaplins, as they prepare for the expected surge in Covid-19 cases over the next two weeks. The hospital has been reconfigured for the emergency.
THESE are the heroes of our time, the frontline staff at Sligo University Hospital who are preparing to treat a surge of Covid-19 infected patients over the next two weeks. Our exclusive pictures by photographer, Carl Brennan show staff who will be to the forefront in fighting this dreadful virus. An Emergency Arrivals Unit is currently being installed at the main entrance. Patients who are acutely unwell/requiring immediate resuscitation will be brought as usual to the Ambulance Entrance/Emergency Department Resuscitation Rooms.
Those not requiring immediate resuscitation or very unwell will firstly be brought to by ambulance/vehicles to the
Emergency Arrivals Unit at the current main entrance. There they will be a quick patient assessment and patients will then enter the hospital and be streamed into Non Covid or Suspected /Possible Covid work areas. These will be signposted.
A temporary Main Entrance is being established adjacent to the Out Patient Department. There, patients attending for non Covid urgent procedures/ tests will enter the hospital. This area will also be manned as family members may wish to drop off toiletries. change of clothing for inpatients, bearing in mind no visitors are allowed unless approved in exceptional circumstances.
Reconfiguration has also been carried out in the Emergency Department including the creation of additional resuscitation capacity and streamlining of essential supplies, equipment to reduce infection risks. Also, nearby Sligo Grammar School’s car parking facilities are to be used by hospital staff and school buildings will be used for storage of administrative property in order to make room for additional bed space within SUH. The Sligo Champion understands that as the hospital rolls out its Covid-19 strategy there is the possibility that the use of school facilities will be extended.
It is believed local hotels are also being considered as possible locations for isolation of patients who cannot do so in their own homes. A new Covid-19 testing centre has opened at Finisklin Industrial Estate.