Elderly to benefit from new IV therapy service
Saturday November 29 2008
A new service being developed by the HSE could end the need for hundreds of older people every year to be relocated to an emergency department when they need rehydration therapy and intravenous antibiotics.
On a visit to St Joseph's Community Nursing Unit in Longford, HSE chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm said he would like to see the intravenous (IVY) therapy services available in all of the HSE's 143 community nursing units across the country as soon as possible.
"While this service can reduce the demand for emergency departments' services and ambulance services, most importantly it eliminates the need for many elderly patients to incur the upset of having to move to unfamiliar surroundings, and have their normal care and routine interrupted for this straightforward service," he said.
A pilot service has been put in place at St Joseph's and at St Patrick's community nursing unit in Cashel, Co Tipperary.
