Hospitals seek to work side by side
The owner of the Limerick Private Hospital said his facility will be located about a mile from the Regional in Dooradoyle and can achieve Health Minister Mary Harney’s objective for ‘co-location’ of public and private hospitals in centres such as Limerick.
Shay Sweeney, of Blackberry Properties Ltd said if his private hospital is approved for co-location with Dooradoyle by the Health Service Executive (HSE), it would free up land on the Regional hospital campus for the development of a new maternity hospital, rather than put another private hospital there.
Mary Fitzgerald, the new chief executive officer of the €100 million Limerick Private Hospital which is under construction said yesterday the 95-bed facility will provide new standards in patient care in the Mid-West.
Chicago born Ms Fitzgerald managed the opening of the private Galway Clinic when she came to this country in 2004 and was previously responsible for 3,000 employees at the prestigious Loyola University Medical Centre in Chicago.
Ms Fitzgerald said the new Limerick Private Hospital will be operated to the standards of the Joint Commission of International Standards for Accreditation.
She said: “This is one of the foremost authorities on quality standards within the healthcare sector. In partnership with the medical community we will deliver excellent patient care in a quality-driven environment and this will drive the ethos of our hospital.”
The Limerick Private Hospital, which is located at Corcanree on the Mungret Road, will take in its first patients in December 2007 and construction of the three storey basement area, where ambulance bays will be located is at an advanced state.
Ms Fitzgerald said she has already had talks with consultants.
Facilities at Limerick Private Hospital will include dedicated suites for single day procedures; four fully equipped operating theatres; two minor theatres; multiple high dependency rooms and 65 additional private en-suite bedrooms.
The hospital will also have its own physiotherapy, laboratory and pharmacy facilities.
Ms Fitzgerald said: “We will have about 300 people working in our hospital and that number does not include doctors and consultants.”
She said the new hospital will help fill the gap in private hospital care in the Mid-West and the regions.
Ms Fitzgerald said: “When you look at it more than 60% of the population of the Mid-West have private insurance. So they are looking for private facilities and we will meet that demand.”
She said there plenty of scope for the Limerick Private Hospital along with the 100 room private hospital planned for Adare Manor.
She said: “We also hope to be a provider of care for patients under the National Treatment Purchase Scheme. And in that way we will be caring for public patients. And if the need is there for any of the public hospitals to use any of our services we would welcome dealing with them also.”
She does not envisage any major problem recruiting nurses despite the current shortage.
Ms Fitzgerald said: “Many have gone abroad to work and many others in Dublin are looking for opportunities to move to places such as Limerick. This will be a state of the art hospital and giving this kind of work environment will be very attractive to nurses. We are going to set a very high standard as we did in the Galway Clinic where the bar was raised for private medicine in Ireland and we did a great job there. So I am going to take the best aspects of the Galway Clinic the best of United States health care and the best of Irish health care and we are doing this by adopting the standards of the Joint Commission of International Standards for Accreditation.”
She said the new Limerick Private Hospital will cater for patients with private and state insurance cover.
The owner of the new hospital, Limerick property developer, Shay Sweeney said their proximity to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital would make it very suitable for a link up under the ‘co-location’ plan.
He said: “If that happens they would not have to build a private hospital in Dooradoyle as we could be that co-location private hospital. If a private hospital was to be built at Dooradoyle it would cut off the availability of space to do anything else there. We are saying ‘let us be that co-location private hospital’ and use your land to build a maternity hospital which has been their vision.”
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