Cork elective hospital plan going to Cabinet as five surgical hubs planned
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is expected to bring the memo to create Cork's new elective hospital at St Stephen's Hospital, Sarsfield's Court, Glanmire, Cork. Stock picture
A memo on plans for Cork’s new elective hospital will be brought before the Cabinet in the coming days, while proposals for five surgical hubs across the country are expected to be signed off before Christmas.
The memo on the plan to locate a new elective hospital at St Stephen’s Hospital at Sarsfield's Court in Glanmire, as revealed by the Irish Examiner last month, is expected to be brought to Cabinet on Wednesday by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
The plan to locate the elective hospital in Glanmire goes against a 2015 recommendation from an expert group which said the hospital should be built close to Cork University Hospital on the west of Cork City. The Glanmire site is on the eastern side of the city.
It is one of three elective hospitals to be delivered, the other two being in Galway and Dublin.
A source said that a memo relating to the Galway hospital will follow shortly. However, he said that the plan for the Dublin hospital “is a bit further behind in the spending code process”.
He also said it is likely to be up to five years before each of the elective hospitals is “up and running”.
The plans to develop five surgical hubs in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, and Dublin are part of an overall plan aimed at reducing waiting lists.
The five new hubs will be based on a model at Tallaght University Hospital in Dublin, where a commercial building nearby was retrofitted and converted into a surgical hub. It has been operating for the past 18 months.
It is understood that no definite locations in either of the five areas have yet been identified but they will be situated in premises close to a hospital.
Fine Gael Cork North Central TD Colm Burke said that a hub is technically in place already in Cork as the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital is an elective hospital.
However, he asked: “Should we be using the facility over weekends and late at night? Do we have staff requirements in order to do that?”
Mr Burke raised concerns about the length of time the process will take for the plan for St Stephen’s Hospital.
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