Proposed €40m hospital redevelopment ‘will not go ahead’
Earlier this month, the HSE secured planning permission for a €15m 50-bed development at the hospital.
However, in a note in the planning report concerning the €15m proposal, the planner in the case confirms an admission from the HSE that the €40m plan will not now be going ahead.
“It would appear from the documents submitted and from prior meetings with the applicants that this larger extension would not be going ahead,” a planner noted.
The planning application for the €40m hospital redevelopment formed a central plank of Fianna Fáil’s 2007 general election campaign in Clare when Minister for Defence, Tony Killeen and Timmy Dooley were elected.
A HSE spokesman conceded the €40m “development will not happen as originally planned but will happen incrementally in line with modern healthcare needs”.
The HSE stated: “Reconfiguration has changed the direction of hospital-based care across the country and capital development is changing in line with the refocused nature of healthcare.
“If one considers the two projects (Endoscopy suite/day ward and ward development) currently being undertaken, it is obvious that they form significant portions of what is now being referred to as the €40m development.”
In September last year, Ennis General lost 25 acute beds as a result of the closure of the hospital’s 24-hour A&E status and losing its acute surgery function.
As a result, the hospital will have been reduced to a 70-bed hospital with 50 in-patient beds and 20 day beds.
Fine Gael’s Deputy Joe Carey said the HSE admission “exposes the false promises by Fianna Fáil to the people of Clare prior to the last two general elections”.
He said: “Unfortunately we now have to settle for a much modified and diminished service at Ennis General.”
However, Deputy Dooley said that the new 50-bed extension to the hospital “is the most significant development in relation to the hospital for many years and underpins the future of the hospital”.
“With the decreased throughput of patients, availability of doctors and threats to patient safety identified at smaller hospitals, the model of care has switched to centres of excellence.”
