Over 130 children to date have had surgery at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) under a new national model of care for general paediatric surgery, improving access for children and families and bringing surgical care as close to home as possible.
Prof Tara Connelly, Consultant General Surgeon with a special interest in Paediatric Surgery, has updated attendees at the annual Sylvester O’Halloran Perioperative Symposium on the development of UHL as a regional paediatric surgical centre under the new HSE model of care launched in the Royal College of Surgeons in September 2024. In addition to Prof Connelly’s appointment, UHL also became the first centre in Ireland to welcome a visiting Consultant Paediatric Surgeon from Children’s Health Ireland, Ms Nicola Brindley, who commenced running theatre lists and CHI’s UHL Outreach Surgery Clinic in Limerick in 2024.
While UHL has for many years provided acute surgical care for children, as well as subspecialties including ENT, orthopaedics, dental and maxillofacial surgery; the majority of patients requiring general paediatric surgery have until recently had to travel outside of the region for their procedures.
Prof Connelly, Ms Brindley and their team have led the expansion of paediatric surgery in Limerick by setting up the first regional paediatric surgical facility in the country under the new model of care. For the first time, the majority of children who need common elective surgeries including hernia repair, endoscopy, skin lesions and undescended testis fixation, can now have their procedures in the Mid West. Prof Connelly is also running paediatric endoscopy lists as well as outpatient clinics in UHL and in Ennis Hospital, with over 500 OPD attendances across the region to date.
Delivering the annual Thomas Myles lecture at the conference, Prof Connelly said: “I am proud to be part of a team in Limerick that is leading the way in transforming how we deliver specialist care. Since I took up post in late 2023, we have made key appointments in surgery and anaesthetics at consultant and SpR level and we have welcomed our first students to train in general paediatric surgery. The early development of these services has been made possible by working closely with colleagues in Children’s Health Ireland and the HSE to build up regional services as part of a national network for paediatric healthcare.
“Most importantly for our young patients and their families, it means they have access to surgical care as close to home as possible. This is already making a huge difference to families who until now have faced the long journey to Dublin for their procedures, resulting in schooldays missed for patients and their siblings and additional costs for parents through missing work and on travel,” Prof Connelly said.
Prof Connelly added she had every expectation the volume of general paediatric surgery at UHL would continue to grow as the national model of care was implemented, supported through the appointment of more consultants and specialist nursing staff as well as designated theatre time and paediatric day surgery beds over time.
Other keynote speakers at this year’s Sylvester O’Halloran Symposium included:
- Prof Deborah McNamara, President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, delivered the Sylvester O’Halloran Lecture on Next Generation Surgery
- Prof Colum Dunne, Head of the School of Medicine, University of Limerick, delivered the Paul O’Byrne Lecture on The Limerick School of Medicine Promise: Differentiation and Multiplication
From its beginnings in 1992, the annual Sylvester O’Halloran meeting has developed into one of the most anticipated such events in Ireland and, increasingly, internationally.
Over 270 abstracts were presented to approximately 500 attendees, including nursing, anaesthesia, surgeons, surgical trainees and numerous other healthcare professionals from all over Ireland and abroad over three days for this year’s event.
The Sylvester O’Halloran Perioperative Symposium 2025 was collaboratively hosted by the departments of surgery, anaesthesia, nursing, ENT, urology, gynaecology and orthopaedics, in conjunction with the Perioperative Directorate at UHL and the School of Medicine, University of Limerick.
Sessions took place on anaesthesia and critical care as well as specialties including breast, colorectal, orthopaedics and head and neck. Masterclasses took place on nursing and vascular surgery as well as lectures on robotic surgery.
There are several awards for presenters which include the prestigious Sylvester O’Halloran Prize and O’Shaughnessy Prize in Anaesthetics.
Sylvester O’Halloran was a renowned surgeon born in Limerick early in the 18th century.
He and others founded the Limerick County Infirmary in the city in 1761. Sylvester O’Halloran’s most enduring legacy is the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He had been very impressed while in France with the Académie Royale de Chirurgie, which had been founded in Paris in 1731 during the reign of Louis XV. Sylvester O’Halloran’s Proposals for the Advancement of Surgery in Ireland (1765) and his driving enthusiasm were responsible for the establishment of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1784; he was awarded an honorary membership of the RCSI in 1786.
The annual Sylvester O’Halloran Meeting, named in his honour, was started in 1992 by the late Limerick surgeon, Mr Peter Delaney and Professor Eamonn McQuaid of UL. It has been subsequently run by Limerick surgeons Prof Pierce Grace, Prof Shona Tormey and, since 2015, by Prof J Calvin Coffey.