Helicopters will once again have a landing spot at CUH from summer onwards

The National Ambulance Service EC135 helicopter at Bishopstown GAA pitch landing field after transferring a patient to Cork University Hospital. Picture: Larry Cummins

Helicopters will be able to land at Cork University Hospital’s (CUH) new long-awaited helipad before the end of the summer.

A large concrete pour was completed earlier this month on the delayed piece of critical infrastructure for the southern region, marking a major milestone in the delivery of the facility.

CUH group chief executive, David Donegan, told the Irish Examiner he hopes to see the first helicopters landing on the hospital campus for the first time in more than 20 years before the end of this summer.

Once operational, the helipad, which will have a pathway linking it directly to the hospital’s emergency department, will improve patient access to the care provided at one of just two level one trauma centres in the country, he said.

“The region has waited for too long for the construction of the helipad,” he said.

“We did the concrete pour for the helipad a few weeks ago, and we are on track to be able to have helicopters landing on the campus this summer.

“We will announce more once we have a construction completion date.

“It will be a major capability for the region and it will improve access in and out of CUH.

“And so for the fantastic work we do, it will be much quicker for people to access even if they present first to a hospital in Tralee, or Limerick, or any of the other hospitals in the southern third of the country.

“They will be able to get to us and the care we give much, much quicker and if we need to send anyone to Dublin for anything, we’ll be able to do that much quicker too.

“We are working with the Coast Guard, the Air Corps, the air ambulance and the National Ambulance Service, who are all really looking forward to this new development.”

CUH has been without a helipad since 2003, when the landing pad which was then located in the south-eastern corner of the hospital campus, close to the Wilton Road, was decommissioned to make way for a new emergency department.

Construction of a replacement landing pad on the roof of that new building was ruled out at the time on budgetary, aviation, and engineering grounds.

Since then, helicopters have been landing on nearby sports pitches, with patients transferred on to CUH by ambulance, an arrangement that has added to patient transfer times.

There have been several missed target dates over the years for the delivery of a replacement landing pad.

Despite objections from some residents who live next to the hospital and close to the proposed flight path, all citing concerns about noise and safety, the helipad was granted conditional planning in July 2019.

Among the conditions was a restriction on the use of the helipad to emergency patient transfer and organ donation flights, only.

However, the project was delayed by the covid pandemic, when HSE Estates staff were focused on delivering covid-related infrastructure.

The ground-based helipad was designed specifically to cater for the Coast Guard’s S92 aircraft, which has since been replaced by a smaller aircraft, the Irish Air Corps’ AW139, and other helicopter types which are involved in aeromedical services in Ireland.

The S92 conducted 54 of the 89 helicopter transfers to CUH in 2015, 12 of the 28 transfers in 201, and 16 of the 35 transfers in 2017.