Surgical hubs announced in 2022 as quick-fix to waiting lists still not taking patients

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly had told the Dáil in 2022: 'We believe we can have patients in these centres within 18 months'. Picture date: Friday January 12, 2024.

None of the surgical hubs announced in late 2022 as a quick-fix to hospital waiting lists are taking patients yet with only one set to do so by year’s end.

Among them, the Limerick hub has not even started construction yet, the Department of Health has confirmed. It had been expected to take no more than 18 months before opening from the announcement in December 2022.

Instead it will now be “over the course of 2025 and 2026” before Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway and north Dublin hubs will start seeing patients.

Work has started on the hub in Cork, co-located with Cork University Hospital and Waterford where it shares a campus with University Hospital Waterford. 

The hubs in Galway and Swords in north Dublin are also under construction.

Only the hub for south Dublin, located in the former private maternity hospital Mount Carmel, is now due to start treating patients from this year.

“All sites for surgical hubs have been granted planning permission. Construction is underway at all sites except Limerick which is expected to get underway shortly,” a Department spokesman said.

The hubs will be run by the large hospitals and are expected to help reduce waiting lists for procedures that do not require an overnight stay in hospitals. 

The idea was they would start reducing the pressures on the lists in advance of three elective hospitals to be built in Cork, Galway and Dublin. Cabinet approval was given for five hubs in December 2022 with six now planned. 

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Health minister Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil then they are based on a successful system started by Tallaght University Hospital in the Reeves centre.

“Critically, based on how long it took Tallaght, we believe we can have patients in these centres within 18 months, which will help,” he said.

By May 2023, however, he said: “I’ve asked the HSE to ensure that the first of the new hubs will be operational before the end of this year, with more following in 2024.” 

The elective hospitals have also faced delays with an integrated design team and project controls team for Galway and Cork only approved last month by the HSE.

Separately it emerged on Tuesday a long-delayed new maternity hospital for Dublin will open late 2028 to early 2029. This will see the National Maternity Hospital re-locate from Holles St to the St Vincent’s University Hospital campus.