HSE to acquire 43 acres of land at Raheen to ease pressure on UHL

It comes after an analysis of emergency services across Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary in the wake of a series of tragedies, including the death of teenager Aoife Johnston

University Hospital Limerick. Last year, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) made recommendations on urgent reform at UHL. Picture Dan Linehan

The Midwest is set for a significant expansion of healthcare services, with a new site to be acquired to relieve the pressure on University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

Culture minister Patrick O’Donovan confirmed the “very welcome” news to the Irish Examiner, with an announcement expected from health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill on Tuesday.

It will see the HSE given the authority to acquire 43 acres of land at Raheen as part of the options given to the Department of Health by the healthcare watchdog last year.

Last year, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) made recommendations on urgent reform at UHL.

It offered three options. 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 regulator was commissioned to analyse the whole of the emergency services across Limerick, Clare and north Tipperary in the wake of a series of tragedies, including the death of teenager Aoife Johnston.

Ms Carroll MacNeill said last year her decision is “to accept all three options, Option A, Option B and Option C, and to take appropriate steps to deliver all of them as quickly may be.” 

 She said she asked the HSE to begin the search for a site where an elective hospital could be built.

“I have now mandated and given the direction to the HSE to secure the site that will give us options for Option B and the flexibility potentially around Option C,” she said in December.

In response to parliamentary questions, the minister said she had mandated the HSE to secure an available, appropriate adjacent site to the Dooradoyle campus. This was being progressed in line with HSE governance processes for property acquisitions in the usual way.

It is expected that a formal announcement of the Raheen site will follow shortly.

Mr O’Donovan had earlier told the Clare Echo: “I’ve had a very good conversation with the Minister for Health, who has really been driving the modernisation, change, reform, and investment into UHL.

“She has confirmed to me that she has given consent for the acquisition of 43 acres for the HSE for an additional hospital campus at Raheen.” 

 He told the Irish Examiner the development was “brilliant” considering it has not been long since the HIQA review was commissioned and reported back to the health minister.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner last month, outgoing HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster signalled he was hopeful there would be a significant announcement for Limerick prior to his departure.

“We’re doing Option A, [Ms Carroll MacNeill] proceeding with B, and she’s blending C into the overall plan for the region,” he said.

“I’m hoping that, in fact, the next milestone of that decision might well even come before I leave office in three weeks’ time. I can’t really go beyond that other than saying I’d be really hopeful that the next milestone could be achieved in it.” 

 The Department of Health was contacted for comment.

The move was welcomed by Limerick Mayor John Moran, who called it a “really good day for the region”.

“Better healthcare facilities are long overdue,” he said. “Since the very first month of my election, I’ve worked hard with the leaders of the HSE to help prove to others the need for this facility and to identify and secure lands before anyone else could snap them up.

“But not just any lands – lands which were perfectly suited operationally close to the existing UHL, which worked with our own LCCC plans for the growth of Limerick, close to the road network, but more importantly, right on our new Adare/Foynes rail line.

“My longer-term vision for a Mid-West region with towns like Ennis, Adare and Nenagh connected to priority services in train-serviced neighbourhoods in Limerick city has moved another step closer to realisation today. As Colbert, Moyross, Ballysimon and Patrickswell fall into place, I grow more and more confident that the end picture is within our grasp.”