The dietitian provides a high quality therapeutic and advisory service, to improve the health of the individual patient by appropriate nutrition intervention.
Location
The Dietetic outpatient office is located on the ground floor of the hospital near Reception and HSSD. A waiting area is provided outside of this room. Individual one-to-one consultations and group work takes place in this office.
Department Working Hours
Clinic Hours
9.00 am – 12.30 pm
13.15 pm – 16.30 pm
3-5 booked dietetic clinics are provided each week in addition to dietetic cover to various consultant-led clinics.
Access to service provided by the Nutrition & Dietetic Service:
Dietitians work as part of the multidisciplinary team. Referred patients must be under the care of a hospital consultant. A written and signed referral from a member of the consultant’s team or from the Oncology or Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist is required before a dietetic consultation can commence. Where it has been identified that you need to see a Dietitian, your doctor will arrange a referral for you and you will be seen by the Dietitian during your hospital stay. An appointment will be arranged for you to be seen as an out-patient if it is not possible to see you while in hospital - see below for details. The Dietitian may occasionally be able to see you on the same day as you have another outpatient appointment. If this is not possible an alternative outpatient appointment will be arranged for you to see the Dietitian.
No service is provided for G.P. referrals at present.
In general this service is provided by Community Nutrition & Dietetic Services and your GP can refer you directly to these services.
Out-Patient Services provided by the Department of Nutrition & Dietetics:
Dietitian - Led Clinics
3-5 clinics are held each week for all outpatient referrals received from hospital doctors, Diabetes Nurse Specialist or Oncology Nurses. Attendance at these clinics is by appointment only. In-patients who have been discharged may be followed up at these clinics.
Dr Durkan’s Diabetes Clinic
The Dietitian attends three of these clinics each month (the clinics held on First Thursday and Friday, and Third Thursday of each month)
Paediatric and Adolescent Diabetes Clinic
These MDT clinics are held every three months. The Paediatric Dietitian is available to see patients at these clinics.
Dr O’Flaherty’s monthly public pain clinic
An on-call dietetic service is provided for this clinic each month
Others
Occasionally a Dietitian may arrange to review a particular patient who is attending the Outpatient Department (OPD) for another clinic appointment at the OPD.
Mission Statement:
The department of Nutrition & Dietetics aims to provide a quality service by: -
- Delivering appropriate dietetic & nutrition intervention which is evidence- based
- Valuing and respecting individuals beliefs, wishes, abilities and culture.
- Endeavouring to empower patients to become involved in managing their care
- Enhancing patient care by providing nutrition education to all relevant staff, through Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and through audit and evaluation.
- Fostering a multidisciplinary team approach to patient care
Role of the Dietitian/Clinical Nutritionist:
The dietitian works closely with other members of the multi-disciplinary team (medical, nursing and other allied professionals) to provide optimum patient care.
The role of the dietitian within Portiuncula Hospital is based upon the application of his/her knowledge of food, nutrition and other related disciplines of biochemistry, physiology and social science to promote health, prevent disease and aid in the management of illness.
The dietitian will see both in-patients and out-patients at the hospital.
The work performed by the Dietitian / Clinical nutritionist includes the following:
- Assessing the nutritional status of malnourished patients and those at risk of malnutrition.
- Calculating nutritional requirements of individual patients, and designing a plan of care to meet these nutritional requirements.
- Organising enteral (tube) and parenteral (intravenous) nutrition support as appropriate
- Instructing patients, and their relatives if necessary, on the management of their therapeutic diet.
- Ordering special meals and nutritional supplements as appropriate for individual patients
- Monitoring patients progress and outcome on nutritional support or therapeutic diet and keeping the team informed through attendances at ward conferences or ward rounds.
- Advising the patients and the team prior to discharge on the nutritional supplements to be prescribed.
- Arranging outpatient follow up with the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics if appropriate.
- Educating patients being discharged on home nutritional support.
- Training and educating other health care workers.
Conditions requiring Dietetic Intervention:
A Dietitian sees people with a variety of conditions including:
- Undernutrition
- Heart Disease
- Hyperlipidaemia e.g. high cholesterol
- Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
- Liver Disease
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Coeliac Disease
- Stroke
- Swallowing Difficulties (Dysphagia)
- Crohn’s Disease
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
- Kidney Disease
- Diagnosed Food Allergy / Intolerance
- Malabsorption States
Contact Details:
Maeve Doherty
Dietitian Manager
Department of Nutrition & Dietetics
Phone: 090 9648200 Ext 206 or 644 (Direct Dial: 090 9648206)
Fax: 090 9642916
Please leave a message on voicemail if no one is available to take your call.
