Deputy Emer Higgins, TD for Dublin Mid West, has welcomed the allocation of funding for a community-based women’s Health Unit to be developed at Tallaght University Hospital. Deputy Higgins said: “The announcement of this funding to develop a women’s health unit at Tallaght Hospital is really good news for the future of treating women’s health in our community. “The new unit will see the hospital’s existing gynaecological services expanding into a 1,200sqm space, allowing for an extra 3,000 out-patient appointments to be accommodated per year, which would be absolutely game-changing,
“In the current facility, gynaecological services are limited on space and resources and confined to the Outpatient Department,” Deputy Higgins added. “But this new community space will hopefully allow for a reduction in the wait-times for outpatient gynaecological appointments and key services and procedures to less than three months. Deputy Higgins continued: “Women’s Health has long been under invested in for decades but we are now turning a clear corner with investment into women’s specific health units and treatment for women’s reproductive health, severe menopause symptoms, and other gynaecological conditions like endometriosis.
“It is fantastic that this new unit will specialise in the treatment of endometriosis, and allow for a threefold increase from 80 to 224 patients a year undergoing surgical procedures to treat advanced endometriosis. “A ‘see and treat’ approach will also be able to be implemented for outpatient appointments, something which is not currently possible at Tallaght Hospital due to limited space and resources, but will be hugely beneficial for patients once the unit is open,” concluded Deputy Higgins.
