A yet-to-be-opened nursing home in Tramore was among the first to step up to the plate in the wake of the fire at Wexford General Hospital, which broke out on Wednesday, March 1st.
Located on the old golf club grounds in the town, work on the Mowlam Healthcare home had only just been completed, having been announced back in October of 2021.
In an interview in today's The Sunday Times, Mowlam CEO, Tipperary-native Michele McCormack, said she immediately offered the new 92-bed facility to the HSE to help with the fallout for patients from Wexford.
McCormack told the paper that it is a sign of the sort of collaboration that could happen in the future too, stating that if we "look at the projections of the services that are needed in the future, the HSE can't provide them on its own."
University Hospital Waterford is still struggling to cope with the amount of patients being brought to their emergency department that would normally have been brought to Wexford.
In an interview on WLR's Déise Today during the week, UHW's general manager, Grace Rothwell, described the situation there as one of the worst she has seen, but praised her staff for the Trojan work they are doing.
She also thanked all the organisations, including Mowlam, that have come together to assist in the last number of weeks:
"Our colleagues in the National Ambulance Service have been superb," Ms Rothwell told Damien Tiernan, "We've got into a flow now of getting some patients back to Wexford every day.
"And you will probably be aware that Mowlam Nursing Home has opened for us in Tramore, so slowly we are getting some patients into there.
"We do have a few positives on the horizon."
Looking to the future for Mowlam - the second largest nursing home provider in Ireland - they do have a number of other homes due to open in the near future.
Those include a 150-bed home in Leopardstown, a 60-bed nursing home in Charleville, a 90-bed facility in Kilkenny, and then another in Kilbarry, Co Cork.
For all your latest Waterford news and sport, click here.
