Charlie O’Toole Unit

How to Find Us

The Charlie O'Toole Unit (COTU) can accessed in two ways:

By taking a left before reaching the main hospital this is a drop off point for patients there is very limited parking. Parking is available in the multi-storey car park if you have dropped a patient to the Hospital. You can also enter the COTU through the main hospital entrance, turning left at the first set of lifts and walking to the end of Hospital Street turning left and walking to the end of the corridor

Description of the Charlie O'Toole Unit

The COTU at TUH strives to facilitate the individual to achieve their maximum potential physically, socially, psychologically and spiritually thus enabling the person to work towards independence in their lifestyle and home environment.

The service opens daily Monday to Friday and consists of a dedicated multidisciplinary team which adopts a collaborative approach to age related healthcare. The COTU has the core elements required to deliver research based holistic Age related care in a specialised day hospital setting. The COTU works in conjunction with many specialist services such as Falls service Stroke and Age related outpatient services and has rapid access to mini diagnostic services such as 24 Holter/ a Blood pressure monitor slots as well as dedicated daily radiology access

Patient Information

This leaflet provides further information on the Day Hospital

Further information

The Carers Association - www.carersireland.com
Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland - www.alzheimer.ie
Employ Ability – www.employabilitiy.ie
Citizens Information Centre (Tallaght) – www.tallaghtinfo.com
Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapist – www.iaslt.ie
Irish Nutrition & Dietetic Institute   - www.indi.ie
Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists – www.iscp.ie
Parkinson’s Association of Ireland - www.parkinsons.ie
Continence Foundation of Ireland - www.continence.ie
Irish Heart Foundation – www.irishheart.ie             

Pastoral Care

Pastoral Care Services are available for patients. Nursing Staff will arrange for a member of the Pastoral Care Team to visit a patient if required.

Day of Discharge

Once your discharge day is planned, hospital policy aims to have all patients discharged by 11am. Please think through what arrangements you need to put in place to get home from hospital. On discharge, all patients are given a discharge letter for their GP and a prescription. An appointment for follow up will be made if necessary.

Visiting Guidelines

Visitors are regarded as an important part of the patient's day and are very welcome at TUH. Please note Patient safety is our number one priority. We have strict policies on infection prevention and control which apply to everyone: staff, patients and visitors. We would ask all visitors observe the following: 

• Only two visitors permitted to visit at any one time
• The Hospital is a no smoking hospital this includes the use of electronic smoking devices
• To avoid bringing infection into the ward, visitors are asked not to visit if they're suffering from colds, flu or infections
• If you are bringing food into patients, please check with the staff in charge - this is to decrease the risk of food contamination and patients may also be on a restricted diet
• Use visitor toilets rather than patient toilets this reduces the risk of cross-infection
• Please dispose of any litter properly, help us to keep our communal areas and entrances clean. This includes lifts and stairwells
• Please note that for infection control reasons flowers or plants are not permitted
• Please note that visiting during mealtimes is forbidden. This enables patients’ to eat and enjoy their meals uninterrupted, an essential requirement for good nutrition so our patients can recover more quickly. The only exception to this is if you are a carer providing assistance with a patient’s mealtime
• Never bring alcohol or drugs to patients

Valuables

We advise all patients not to bring valuables with you during an admission i.e. cash or jewellery. The Hospital is not responsible for patients’ valuables, if kept by the patient. If you do happen to carry cash or items of value with you, there is a patient safe on ward which your nurse can lodge things in.