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THE owner of Barrington's Hospital in Limerick has denied claims that surgery was cancelled last week in order to allow staff to attend the Rose of Tralee competition and support their colleague, Mary Sheahan, a nurse at the hospital, who was representing Limerick. Sheahan told host Ray D'Arcy on stage that surgery in the hospital had been postponed so her fellow nurses could travel to Tralee to see her participate.
The owner of the hospital, Limerick consultant Paul O'Byrne, told the Sunday Tribune that nothing had been "cancelled", just "moved".
O'Byrne said that when the date of the Rose of Tralee was learned "a few weeks ago", surgery due last Wednesday following the Limerick Rose's appearance was postponed until yesterday. "Wednesday became Saturday, if you know what I mean, " O'Byrne said.
During Sheahan's appearance at the Rose of Tralee last Tuesday evening, she said that patients were informed of the situation and were all happy to have the dates of their surgeries changed to Saturday.
The hospital performs elective surgeries including hernia operations, breast surgery and investigative operations.
Some patients are referred to Barrington's from other hospitals under the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
The hospital processes between 20 and 40 operations a day, although none involve "emergency work", according to O'Byrne.
A graduate of the IT Tralee School of Nursing, Mary Sheahan returns to work tomorrow and plans to undertake further studies in the field of theatre nursing.
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YOU ARE HERE: 19 March 2007 / tribune.ie / 2006 / 09 / 27
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