A&E set for €10.5m overhaul

WORK is due to start early next year on a €10.5 million expansion of the emergency department at Waterford Regional Hospital.

Planning permission was secured by the Health Service Executive this week from Waterford City Council for the refurbishment project, and for a new car park with space for up to 220 vehicles.

“Following receipt of planning permission, construction is expected to commence in early 2008,” said a HSE spokesperson.

The work will include construction of a new two-storey extension comprising a ground-floor expansion to the existing emergency department, a first-floor open plan unit, new external canopies at the front, new single-storey entrance to the maternity department and an external open canopied seating area.

As part of the project, an existing canopy and glazed entrance to the existing department will be demolished, as will a single-storey office extension adjacent to this section of the hospital.

Meanwhile, a new car park at Waterford Regional Hospital will include a block of about 220 spaces between the old St Theresa’s Unit and the main Dunmore Road.

There will also be a further block of 61 spaces, stretching down to the Maypark Lane entrance along the Dunmore Road.

All the planned car parking will be at ground level, along with normal ancillary services including lighting, security and drainage.

“The new facility will operate as a pay car park with access control barriers and pay stations,” said the HSE.

Future developments at WRH will include provision for further car parking.

News of planning permission for the extension and the car park follows last week’s laying of the foundation stone for a new€4.2 million medical centre at Waterford Regional.

The stone was ceremonially laid by Minister for Social and Family Affairs Martin Cullen and the facility is being jointly funded by the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and the HSE.

The centre is designed to enhance the teaching of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical personnel in the south-east.

Due to be completed in July 2008, the academic teaching centre will provide state of the art facilities for RCSI undergraduate students attending their clinical rotations in Waterford.

This will include a 194-seat lecture theatre, a large teaching and seminar room, tutorial and reading rooms for interactive teaching and other administrative and ancillary services.