Following months of planning the new Endoscopy Unit on the
Ulster site opened for business on 6 July 2017.
The Unit is part of the Day Procedure Unit located in Level 2
of the new Inpatient Ward Block (IWB).
This Unit is the amalgamation of the Ulster Hospital Endoscopy
Unit, originally based in Main Theatres within the Critical Care
Complex and the Endoscopy Room from the Calder Theatres
in Ards Hospital, which has now closed.
The Unit now has 3 purpose built endoscopy rooms with new,
up to date endoscopy processors, monitors and other
equipment required for therapeutic and complex endoscopy
procedures.
The Unit also has 2 fully equipped admission rooms and
a 9 bedded gender segregated endoscopy recovery.
The environmental footprint of the Unit has been reviewed
and conforms to Joint Advisory Group on Gastrointestinal
Endoscopy (JAG) standards for future JAG accreditation.
The physical capacity for endoscopy has been increased
from 2 to 3 rooms to deal with the future increasing demand of this service and they are now in a
position to offer more highly complex therapeutic endoscopy procedures in a safe and fully equipped
environment. This now includes ERCPs within the Unit rather than in the X-ray Department where it
originally took place.
The move has also involved the recruitment of new staff into Endoscopy and Barbara Simpson, Lead
Nurse for Endoscopy would like to warmly welcome them into the team and hope they enjoy this new
environment.
Barbara would like to thank all the staff involved for their commitment and help with this challenging
move and set up of the Unit, which will continue to evolve over time with the end result being happy
patients and happy staff.
New Endoscopy Unit, Ulster Hospital
Dr Rowan, Tanya McKee,
Nigel Brownlee, Pamela
McCormick, Carol Maier,
Amanda Palin, Barbara
Simpson on duty for the first
Endoscopy list in new Unit
on 6 July 2017.
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