Rumours of the demise of St Francis Private Hospital, Ballinderry have been greatly exaggerated. The private Mullingar hospital, which first opened its doors to the public back in June 1968, remains very much at the heart of the local community and is very much open for business.
At present there are 65 people employed at the Mullingar hospital, which went into receivership under KPMG last April and is now being run by Centric Health. John Malone, who is charge of finance and business development, explained that St Francis Private Hospital remains at the heart of the local community.
“We are open for business and keen to grow and develop,” explained Mr Malone.
“We have made significant investment since April to put the hospital in a prime position to attract patients and offer them excellent services and support. We are confident the investment has been right and are looking forward to the future. It’s important that we remain part of the community of Mullingar,” he added.
The hospital has a 98-bed capacity, with four theatres and a endoscopy theatre. Public perception was that there were doubts as to the hospital’s future, but management are keen to point out that they are committed to growing and expanding the facility.
Sinead O’Connor, Chief Operations Officer at St Francis, stressed that providing the very best health care is their priority.
“We are a day case and over-night stay hospital, offering excellent surgical services and specialising in ophthalmology, maxillary facial, dental, urology, ENT (ear nose and throat), orthopaedics and general surgery. Other services include endoscopy, radiology, physiotherapy, cardiology, respiratory medicine and speech therapy. Green light laser surgery for prostrate problems is a new urology service introduced in July and we have modern facilities with a strong emphasis on training and development,” she explained. An example of this is a lecture series being run by Dr Peter Lachman, a consultant paediatrician from Great Ormond Street Hospital, London over the coming months in the hospital for all staff and visiting consultants.
There are well known local surgeons, anaesthetists and physicians at the hospital and the focus is definitely on growth, with a recruitment drive for more theatre and paediatric nurses underway.
The management are stressing Mullingar’s geographical position at the heart of the midlands, with easy access to the M4 and M6 routes. The growth and development of the hospital will mean a spin-off for other businesses in the town, which would be a welcome boost.
“We would welcome feedback from the local people on anything they feel we can do to improve the service we provide,” said Sinead. “We are keen to provide very high quality, safe health care.”
The Ballinderry Clinic is located on the same site as the hospital and offers quality service also, with many of the same consultants working in both facilities.
Ballinderry Church
remains open
There were concerns locally that the church at Ballinderry hospital was about to close its door to the public. It has been very popular with the Mullingar community for many years and John Malone was keen to stress that it is not being shut for now.
“It is open at the minute, but is under review. We can’t open it at weekends at present for security reasons, but we are not out to close the church if at all possible,” he explained.
In the past the hospital was open 24 hours a day, but the situation has changed and the management say they must be conscious of security and for that reason, simply cannot open it at weekends.
“We very much want to remain part of the local community,” John explained.
