Health board backs private hospital plan

A PRIVATE hospital could be built in the mid-west if Limerick’s Regional Hospital raised the funds for the project by selling four acres of its land, a health board report has revealed.

A proposal last May to establish a private hospital on the grounds of the Mid West Regional Hospital at Dooradoyle was abandoned when Bon Secours Health System and BUPA Healthcare Ireland Ltd withdrew from the project.

In response, the health board established a project group to re-examine its options. Arising from the group’s work, the health board executive is to recommend to members today.

that they “dispose of four acres on the Mid-West Regional hospital campus to construct a private hospital.”

The 30 million hospital is expected to comprise 75 in-patient and 25 day-care beds.

Among the factors influencing persuading the health board to push ahead with the project include the fact that 55% of the mid-west population hold private health insurance compared to 45% nationally, while the percentage of private beds in the public hospital system is 25% compared with the recommended norm of 20%.

The study also points to the population of the mid-west increasing by 7.2% since 1996 with the number of births in the region increasing by 25% during the same period.

It also found that bed occupancy rates in the mid-west are 93% compared with the internationally recognised norm of 85%.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Sean Hillery welcomed the board’s hospital plans.

“The Board’s decision is very positive, especially in light of the terrible disappointment being felt today in the mid-west in relation to the report recommending against a radiotherapy unit being established in the region,” he said.

“A private hospital would free up capacity for public patients in the health board’s acute hospitals and I believe the private hospital will happen. The situation over Bon Secours and BUPA was very disappointing because we lost two years over that.”