Private hospital plan falls through

PLANS for a €30m private hospital for Limerick city will not go ahead after it was revealed yesterday that the Bon Secours Health System and BUPA Healthcare Ireland Ltd have withdrawn from the project.

The announcement, made by the Mid-Western Health Board, was greeted with bitter disappointment by the board members.

Health board assistant chief executive officer John O'Brien said the Bons Secours and BUPA had been negotiating with the health board to build the hospital on a seven-and-a-half acre site in the grounds of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital at Dooradoyle the main acute hospital in the midwest region.

The private hospital would comprise 75 in-patient and 25 day-case beds and the services provided would compliment the public hospital.

"The health board will continue its efforts to seek suitable partners to develop a private hospital in Limerick," said Mr O'Brien.

Explaining the decision not to go ahead with the project, he said: "There is the critical issue in terms of private insurance cover. It is not simply private VHI cover, but a requirement for enhanced cover to offset some of the capital investment for the project."

Mr O'Brien said the health board had carried an extensive exercise on the bed provision in the mid-west region relative to the rest of the country and internationally. This demonstrated that not alone was Ireland very low down, but the midwest region was at the bottom end of that scale. Fine Gael's Richard Butler, public representative in the Dooradoyle area, described the Bon Secours/BUPA decision to withdraw from the project as "terrible news and most disappointing".

Consultant at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Paul Burke, welcomed the fact that the partners involved in the project had finally made a decision. "There are many other groups who are Limerick-based who would be very interested in trying to provide a healthcare facility on this Dooradoyle site. Hopefully, such groups will be encouraged to develop such a facility," he said.