Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) recently announced plans to carry out an additional 4,300 endoscopy procedures a year.
These will take place in the newly opened Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Diseases.
The new development which is located within the Hospital, represents an overall investment of over €1.7M.
TUH has been able to open this new unit by repurposing space which became free after day surgeries (where patients return home the same day) were moved into a brand new surgical facility, just opposite the Hospital in Tallaght called the Reeves Day Surgery Centre (RDSC).
Prof O’Morain and team
The new Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Diseases within the Hospital will encompass the Endoscopy & Gastroenterology Departments at TUH, which have developed innovative new services such as Dietitian-led Gut Therapy for IBS, Hi-Resolution Oesophageal Physiology, Liver Elastography and being established as the national lead centre for Capsule Endoscopy and the study of H.pylori resistance.
Lucy Nugent, CEO of TUH explains, “The newly opened Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Disease will consist of two new procedure rooms and a post procedure scope wash room.
“This will significantly increase our capacity to perform both oesophageal endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures.
“This is a very welcome development and will have a very positive impact on waiting times for patients.
“The timing of the opening of the Colm O’Móráin Centre for Digestive Disease coincides with the Hospital celebrating our 25th anniversary.
“This much needed expansion of endoscopy services demonstrates how the Hospital continues its 25 year tradition of developing services and adopting new treatments for the benefit of patients.”
Prof Anthony O’Connor Clinical Lead of the Department of Gastroenterology at TUH says:
“Professor Colm O’Móráin, was one of the greatest Irish clinician-scientist of his or any era, a true trail blazer who established the gastroenterology unit here where he worked for many years before retiring from the Hospital in 2011, however he still provides leadership working full-time as the director of the HSE National Clinical Programme for Gastroenterology.
“Among other achievements, Professor O’Móráin was the first to prove that Duodenal ulcers could be cured by antibiotics and later in his career started bowel screening in Ireland, which was piloted here in Tallaght before being rolled out nationally.
“It is both a great privilege and a responsibility for us to carry his legacy by continuing the great work he started in the new centre we are naming in his honour today.”
Welcoming the new development, Professor Colm O’Móráin said, “I am delighted to see the continued expansion of such an important diagnostic services at TUH.
“It is reassuring to know that the physicians based here will have the latest in cutting edge endoscopy diagnostics to enable them to design the best and most appropriate treatments for patients. I am humbled that this new centre has been named after me.
“It is a great honour.”
Professor O Móráin is the National Clinical lead for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Ireland.
He is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine and a former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Trinity College Dublin.
He has published over 500 scientific papers and authored or co-authored six books.
His research interest are Helicobacter Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Colorectal Cancer Screening.