Admissions have resumed at the Galway Hospice in-patient unit, which had been closed to new patient admissions for over 15 months due to medical errors and staffing problems.
Galway Hospice yesterday announced the resumption of full consultant-led services at the in-patient unit where the first patient was re-admitted since May 2003.
The clinical director of Galway Hospice, Dr Dympna Waldron, returned to work at the in-patient unit this week, where new medical protocols have been put into place.
The protocols were recommended by an independent review group set up to investigate Dr Waldron's concerns over medication issues at the hospice.
Dr Waldron's return to work and the resumption of in-patient services at the unit follows extensive negotiations between the hospice board, the Western Health Board and Dr Waldron.
The chairman of the hospice board, Dr Richard Joyce, expressed his delight that in-patient services had resumed and confirmed that one patient had been admitted.
This brings to two the number of patients being cared for in the unit at the moment as one patient has been there since May 2003, when Dr Waldron stopped referring patients to the hospice because of her concerns about a number of errors in the administration of drugs to patients.
A spokesperson for Glór, the voluntary group set up to campaign for the reopening of the Hospice, said it looked forward to things moving forward.
"It's been a long struggle and we welcome the reopening of the unit on behalf of patients and their families who have been the big losers in the whole debacle."
The spokesperson pointed out that referrals to the unit had been stopped since May of last year on what turned out to be very well founded grounds.
She said: "We hope that such a situation will never arise again, that in the future nothing would give cause to stop referrals to the hospice and that structures would be in place so that patients would not be deprived of services should difficulties ever arise again."
A spokesperson for the Western Health Board said it welcomed the reopening of the hospice.
The board is continuing its international search for a locum to work alongside Dr Waldron at the in-patient unit.