The new 60-bed modular unit for University Hospital Limerick will NOT open there in time for next winter.
It had been expected that the unit would bring a badly-needed increase in bed capacity to the region’s main hospital before the end of the year, but it now won’t open until at least the middle of 2020.
At the beginning of November, Minister Simon Harris committed to funding the modular unit and its 60 new beds at Dooradoyle.
Planning permission was already in place and speaking at that time, the Minister anticipated the facility would be open this year.
Senior hospital officials and local politicians also stated that they expected the 60-bed unit to open by next winter, but three months on, there has been little movement in the project.
The government has yet to formally allocate the €19.5 million to allow it go ahead, although that is expected with the release of the HSE’s 2019 Capital Plan in the coming weeks.
However, after the Department of Health admitted the construction period is expected to last for fifteen months, the UL Hospitals Group has confirmed to Clare FM that its targeted opening date for the new unit is now mid-2020.
Even this is subject to funding.
The group had hoped to complete the works by the end of the year, and says a steering group for the project has been established, and that a timeline for its delivery will become more clear when the HSE’s Capital Plan is released.
But news that the unit will not open this year will be met with strong disappointment by many in Clare and throughout the MidWest, as it means thousands more patients will endure long waits on trolleys next winter, without any prospect of a respite in pressures there.
Statement from the UL Hospitals Group
A planning application was lodged in June 2018 for the proposed extension to the existing hospital to provide a new 60-bed ward block at University Hospital Limerick and a notification of grant of permission was issued on 3rd October 2018.
The objective has been to have the new beds available at the earliest opportunity subject to allocation of funding to deliver the project. The tendering process was completed by September 2018 and it was hoped at that time, subject to funding provision, that the works could be completed by the end of 2019.
A steering group was established to begin the internal planning process for this new facility. The group is tasked with planning for the opening of the beds, which includes staffing levels and bed usage etc.
UL Hospitals Group understands that the draft HSE Capital Plan 2019 is due to be submitted to the Department of Health shortly.
It will then be subject to the approval of the Minister for Health and the sanction of the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure.
A timeline for the delivery of this project can be better established when confirmation is received regarding allocation of capital funding and hence clarification when works can commence.
Should funding for the project be formally approved in the coming weeks, it is anticipated that the works would be completed by mid 2020.
