Cork hospitals’ merger plan shelved

MERGER plans involving two of the country’s biggest voluntary hospitals have been temporarily shelved.

A five-year strategic plan published yesterday by the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork city made no reference to its proposed €500 million amalgamation with the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, announced in 2007.

Instead, the plan dovetails with much of what the Health Service Executive (HSE) has proposed as part of reconfiguring acute hospital services in the south.