THERE will be more day care beds in the new hospital in Tallaght, but about 100 fewer acute adult beds than currently available in the Adelaide and Meath Hospitals.
But microscopic surgery allows far more procedures to be carried out on a day care basis, according to its newly appointed chief executive officer, Dr David McCutcheon. Also, a private unit on the site, with up to 100 beds, is expected to open soon.
Dr McCutcheon was speaking to the media for the first time since taking up his position last week, at the introduction yesterday of the hospital's new logo. It is a trefoil which also suggests a bird, and, according to the board's chairwoman, Ms Rosemary French, represents "warmth, strength, calmness, reassurance".
The hospital will have 530 beds in all, of which 175 will be children's, 56 psychiatric (from St Loman's Hospital) and 20 geriatric, leaving 279 for In patient care for adults. There are just under 400 beds in the Adelaide and Meath Hospitals combined.
However, the new hospital - whose full title is the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin, incorporating the National Children's Hospital - will be involved in health promotion and disease prevention and will develop close relationships with GPs in the area to provide "a seamless continuum of care", according to Dr McCutcheon.
He stressed the importance of integrating psychiatric care into a general hospital.
The hospital will be a national centre for haemophilia and nephrology, specialities which already exist in the base hospitals, he said. But, because it was a teaching centre, he expected there would be new developments.
While there would be no maternity unit, as there were already three maternity hospitals in Dublin and the birth rate was falling, he hoped there could be provision for pre and post natal care.
Referring to developments in day care, he pointed out that in the US "you can leave the house at 7 a.m., have your gall bladder removed and be back at 7 p.m."
There would be 75 day beds in the hospital for such procedures. "The use of acute care hospital beds is falling significantly worldwide," he added.
Mr Tim Delaney, secretary manager of the Adelaide, said day surgery now accounts for half of all surgery. He added that the board planned to build a private unit of between 80 and 100 beds in the very near future. Consultants contract's normally include access to private beds for the consultants' private patients.
He hoped this would be open shortly after the main hospital. "We could undesignated them as private beds as needed," he said.
Demand for acute beds could also be reduced by increased efficiency, he said. "For example, at present a stay in orthopaedics is about 11 days. This could be reduced by doing the work up [patient preparation] as an outpatient, and to have step down facilities outside the main hospital for recuperation."
He said they were concerned they would be very busy, as the catchment area included not only Tallaght but Cos Wicklow and Kildare. "There will be a novelty value at the beginning. We will probably have open days so that people can come as tourists rather than patients to see us."
Mr Delaney said a liaison committee with local GPs had been set up, and they were working on care protocols for certain diseases. Tallaght and Clondalkin are at the cutting edge of GP practice, with new multi practices," he said.
Dr McCutcheon, who had been working in Canada, said he had applied for the job as CEO when his brother sent him the advertisement. "I was attracted by the challenge of a merger," he said. "Mergers are difficult to manage. "There will be issues of different cultures coming together. But for the staff the benefits far outweigh the fears."
He stressed the importance of the 600 years history represented by the three hospitals combined. "One of the things we must be concerned with is making it the same caring, friendly place the original institutions were.
Asked what provision there was for teaching Catholic medical ethics in a nursing college where Catholics and non Catholics were being taught together, he said there would be no specific teaching in this area. "The issue is the moral teaching of the church, and the moral principles of the individual. The people who come to the nursing schools will have decided which they are applying "to."