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20 Governance Rep ts 2020 | NMH Annual Rep t year-end finalising the initial phase of the OR project. We await approval for the next stages of OR to recommence hopefully in mid-2021. At year end the initial phases of enabling works including pharmacy and car park neared completion on the Elm Park Campus with handovers of these areas expected in early 2021. Whilst the co-location to the Elm Park Campus remains our priority it is still many years from completion and we must continue to deliver safe and appropriate care on the current site. We are all acutely aware of the limitations of the current infrastructure and this has again been highlighted during the COVID-19 crisis. Women's healthcare cannot wait until we co-locate and thus with the assistance of NWIHP we continue to strive to enhance services for our patients and to introduce group and national services for women. However, it is once again evident that we cannot, even in the short term, continue on the existing site without provision of some additional space and it is certain that we cannot continue to provide new and enhanced services with some short term investment. As already noted COVID-19 was the primary focus for everyone during 2020. From the perspective of the Hospital's Finances there were significant impacts from COVID-19. These included costs of PPE including masks, visors, gloves and gowns where both costs and quantities in use increased very significantly. Costs of additional staff to deal with COVID-19 issues such as COVID-19 swabbing and testing, additional infection control procedures and also COVID-19 related absenteeism. There were also costs incurred in providing infrastructural changes some of which were funded by way of additional COVID-19 grants from the HSE. Another direct financial impact of COVID-19 was overall reduced LOS which impacted our bed incomes which are a major source of our overall Funding. The HSE has also agreed to fund this shortfall. At year end due to the continuing focus on processes and collections of debtors there was a write-back of debtors provisions and with some other funding this lead to an overall surplus at the year end. This should be treated with caution as it is entirely dependent upon HSE Capital funding in excess of €6M being received for the Labour and Birthing Unit (LBU) & Theatre development projects which continued during the year and were close to completion at year end. The ongoing impact of COVID-19 on finances will be assessed and appraised over the coming months but 2021 is likely to be challenging from the perspective of budgets and finances. All hospital Departments and staff continued to show their commitment to patient care despite the challenges during 2020. Once again a number of the Hospital Departments' excellence were externally recognised by various awards and accreditations being granted or renewed. This included our Catering Department who were awarded the ISO 22,000 2018, Food Safety Management System making the NMH the first maternity and non-private hospital to achieve this international standard. The Catering Department also achieved 100% in the FSPA Food Safety Awards as they did in 2019. Our Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine successfully retained the accreditation to ISO 15 189 and our Environmental Department maintained environmental accreditation ISO 14001:2015. I would like to thank the Master, Prof. Shane Higgins, the Director of Midwifery & Nursing, Ms Mary Brosnan, the Financial Controller, Mr Alistair Holland and the Clinical Director, Dr Roger McMorrow and members of the Executive Committee and other Board Sub-Committees. I would especially like to thank Ms Clare Gray and Ms Pamela Robinson without whose support the work of the Secretary/ General Manager would never be completed. It has been a challenging year but with the advice, support and assistance of everyone involved we begin anew. Ronan Gavin Secretary/General Manager I would especially like to thank the facilities engineering team for their innovative and rapid response with our "hospital within a hospital", our tendering and purchasing team, contact tracing team and our microbiology team