Clare patients to benefit under new UL Hospitals strategic plan

A NEW five-year strategy for UL Hospitals Group commits management and staff to improving patient experience in Clare in line with the Sláintecare reform programme.

Under Sláintecare, public acute and community health services in Clare and across the region will be integrated under a new entity, HSE Mid-West.

Speaking at the launch of UL Hospitals Group Strategic Plan 2023-2027, CEO Professor Colette Cowan said: "With this plan, we renew and reaffirm our commitment to improve current patient flow and pathways of care and to implement the priorities and objectives detailed in Sláintecare, the 10-year Government programme aiming to establish a universal, single-tier and high-quality healthcare system”.

Prof Cowan said the new hospital group strategy is aligned with the national plan and inspired by the promise of Sláintecare to organise health services, in Clare and elsewhere, according to local population need and on the principle of treating patients as close to home as possible.

“Our strategy is designed to accommodate the unique health profile and challenges of the Mid West region,” Prof Cowan said.

Festivities to begin in Ennis with turning on off Christmas lights

The five-year plan is based on four strategic priorities - Patient Experience and Public Engagement, People Performance and Culture, Academic Health Science System and Integrated Care System.

“Broad strategic goals such as these might seem aspirational at first glance but we are not publishing this five-year plan in order to leave it on the shelf. Staff across the organisation are committed to living it and delivering it in the interests of our patients. We recently published an overview of the five-year strategy from 2018 to 2022 which sets out the practical achievements of our staff over a timeframe that was dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic," explained Prof Cowan.

“Our new strategy is animated by the promise of Slaintecare to shift appropriate services from the hospital to the community and to organise and resource health services according to population health need. The Mid-West has everything to gain in this new era and our strategy sets out how we will build an integrated health service and in a way that more directly involves the patients it is designed to help,” she added. 

Prof Brian Lenehan, chief clinical director at UL Hospitals Group, said: “Over the five-year duration of our previous strategy, demand on our services increased by far in excess of population growth. Attendances to our ED increased by over 11% in the five years up to 2022 and at our Injury Units and Medical Assessment Units in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s by 41% and 39% respectively, reflecting our commitment to our strategic goal of clinical transformation across all our hospital sites.”

Suzanne Dunne, chief of strategy and transformation at UL Hospitals Group, added: “The development of UL Hospitals Group Strategy 2023-2027 involved extensive engagement including numerous workshops, one-to-one consultations and 13 focus groups across our hospitals and the wider community. Our aim is that the strategy is widely understood and embraced by staff and service users as guiding the direction of the hospital group for the next five years. 

 “The 2023 – 2027 Strategic Plan is intended to provide the necessary steps to continue to deliver better and improved healthcare services for our region. We have recently established a Strategic Transformation Office and the core function of this office is to oversee and implement  our new strategic plan. I would like to acknowledge and thank all those who participated in the development of the strategy.

The UL Hospitals Group, which employs around 6,000 people, provides acute hospital care to a population of approximately 410,000 from a network of six hospitals across Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary.