News Detail
Vhi Swift Care - Urgent Medical Care - Inaugural International Conference
The conference took place in Dublin City University on Friday 14th November 2008. The day itself was spilt into four sections with the first being a number of practical, hands on skill sessions in the School of Nursing. These skills sessions were attended by doctors and nurses from the Vhi SwiftCare Clinics in Dublin, Waterford and Cork. Three skill stations were organised for plaster application, burn and wound management and suturing. Mr Tommy Johansson, Specialist in Orthopaedics and Casting, Mr Danny O’Keeffe, Plaster nurse, were on hand to deliver the plaster application session. Mr Richard Hanson, Plastic Surgeon, and Julie Jordan O’Brien delivered the suturing and wound/burn management sessions respectively. The final part of the morning session was a presentation delivered by Hilda Dowler and Dr Shane Farrelly from The Well at Work, which launched the Needlestick Injury and Blood Borne Viruses protocol.
While the skills sessions were taking place in the nursing block, the second Medical Advisory Committee of the year was taking place in the Presidents Boardroom in the 1838 Club of DCU. Included in the committee was Dr Ray Power – Group Medical Director, Vhi SwiftCare and Mr Henry Woods – CEO Vhi SwiftCare, Mike Lockwood – Group Medical Officer, Dr Lee Resnick – President – The Urgent Care Association of America and Dr Jane Cowan – Risk Management Consultant.
The main event for the day took place in the main lunchroom of the 1838 Club. The purpose of the conference was to Launch Urgent Care Medicine in Ireland as a Clinical Speciality based on International models and network all relevant specialists and stakeholders. Guests invited for the day-included members of the Vhi Swift Care Clinic, Vhi Health Care, Centric Health, Locumotion and a number of corporate stakeholders. The president of DCU, Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski, kindly gave the opening address for the afternoon.
Our keynote speaker, Dr Lee Resnick, took centre stage in the 1838 Club. Dr Resnick, who is the president of the Urgent Care Association of America, said emergency departments should be used only for emergency treatments such as severe trauma injuries, yet they are often overwhelmed by cases which are less urgent in nature (Irish Times Nov 18th). He noted that cases can be handled in a timely, convenient and costs effective manner through Urgent Care while at the same time taking the strain off Hospital emergency departments.
The last session of the day was dedicated to the interface between Urgent Care and Emergency Medicine and Risk Management.
Over 90 allied health care professionals attended the Urgent Medical Care Inaugural International Conference.
We are in the process of organising further Urgent Care conferences in 2009. If you would like some more information, please contact Desmond Mac Hale at desmondmachale@centrichealth.ie
To view an article that was published on www.Health-eNews.ie in relation to the conference, please click the link below:
http://www.health-enews.ie/e_article001266963.cfm?x=bdLTV3s,bbbw9y17,w
News posted on November-26-08
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