New hospitals for Midwest welcomed but campaigners raise timeline concerns

Construction will continue at UHL in Dooradoyle, including opening a surgical hub next year.

A plan to ultimately build two new hospitals — including one with an emergency department — for the Midwest as well as expand University Hospital Limerick (UHL) has been broadly welcomed.

However, campaigners have been left frustrated at the lack of detail on funding and timelines from health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

Martin Abbott’s family on Wednesday marks six years since his death in the emergency department at UHL. Aoife Johnston’s family marks three years since her death, in UHL, on Friday.

These and other tragedies lay behind the Hiqa review of services and its advice to health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. It suggested three options to her. Option A was to expand capacity at UHL, option B to build an elective hospital nearby to UHL, and option C was to build a new hospital in the region with an emergency department.

The minister now intends to progress all three in “a blended approach”.

Construction will continue at UHL in Dooradoyle, including opening a surgical hub next year.

She asked the HSE yesterday to identify a site “adjacent” to UHL for the second option. “It is totally appropriate to move elective work away from acute hospitals,” she said.

The third option will, she said, “deliver essentially another hospital” for the region.

Melanie Cleary and Marie McMahon have been prominent voices in the Midwest Hospital Campaign.

Ms Cleary said: “I think it is a step in the right direction. I know from speaking to other campaigners, we’re a bit concerned about the timeframe.”

She welcomed the move of non-emergency services from UHL but said they ultimately want an extra hospital with an emergency department.

“They need to identify a site for that as soon as possible,” she said. “I know for us in the group it’s not important where that is.”

Ms McMahon said more detail is needed, adding: “If they are progressing with option B, why are they not progressing with option C.”

Joe Devlin, UHL medical board deputy chairman and rheumatologist, said: “It’s clear that we’ve been short of beds for a long time, and this intent is exactly the right way to go. To finally have recognition of the deficiency in bed-provision and in staff is greatly welcomed by the consultant body.”

However, he warned: “There’s a lot of work to be done between now and opening new beds elsewhere.”

Mary Fogarty of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation also welcomed the plans, adding that current overcrowding at UHL remains “extremely dangerous” despite the recent opening of additional capacity.

She called for safe staffing levels to get as much attention as expanding capacity.

Labour TDs Alan Kelly and Conor Sheehan separately raised questions about funding in light of the HSE’s budget and why the larger hospital option is not being progressed now.