On the ground at the proposed site of the Mid-West's new hospital
At first glance, it is hard to picture that peaceful green fields outside Limerick could soon become a construction site and eventually a new hospital which hopefully will finally help address the Mid-West's chronic overcrowding.
Barbed wire and stone walls still run around the farm fields. They are flanked by a quiet lane with several large houses and on the far side by links to busy roads, including the 2km distance to University Hospital Limerick.
It took less than five minutes to drive that journey from UHL and there is also access to the M7 and M20. Ennis and Nenagh lie about 30 minutes each away.
This 44-acre site — costing €14m — will be one of Ireland's largest hospital sites; slightly bigger than University Hospital Limerick and comparable to large hospitals in Cork or Galway.
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The plan comes after Hiqa’s advice in September for reform to address “immediate risk to patient safety".Â
Its three options were immediate works at UHL, build a hospital facility near UHL and a new high-level hospital with an emergency department.
“This is a site under close proximity to UHL and it will be under shared governance,” health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said.
“We’ve gone and bought a site that gives us option B, option C and C+ very considerably and allows us to push ahead in a much more ambitious way than the Hiqa report.”Â
Standing in a crowded room at the HSE offices in Limerick city, she was flanked by TDs and councillors no doubt relieved to share good news following public outrage at overcrowding and tragedies in UHL.
The minister seems ambitious to avoid delays besetting elective hospitals in Cork and Galway or the new children’s hospital. She expects a report from a project board by autumn even though people are not yet in place.
Asked when a second ED could open, she told the : “This is part of that, everything is on the table here because of the nature of the site that we’ve acquired.”Â
She will wait on the report, but said: “There is no question but that emergency services have to be expanded here."
Could plans to re-locate the Limerick maternity hospital also switch to the new site?
“There’s every possibility around how we think about that for the future. How do we best deliver services across two sites, including maternity services,” she said.
Moving services out to Ennis and Nenagh hospitals is in the mix as is increasing investment there.
HSE Midwest regional executive officer, Sandra Broderick, welcomed the announcement as “a massive day” for the region.
In relation to past tragedies, she said: “I can’t take away the pain those families have suffered, nothing I can say today can take that away.
“But what I can do today is reassure the public that our mortality rates are equal to every other Model 4 hospital in the country, and sometimes that gets forgotten.”Â
John Wall, chair of the HSE Midwest Patient and Service User Council described the minister’s statements as “very welcome".Â
However, he added: “I think any planning where appropriate should be fast-tracked. We’ve seen in recent weeks if the will is there it can be done in relation to the Rotunda.
“So it can be done. I think the collective will is there, there’s cross-party support for this hospital.” He is “hopeful” patient involvement in reforms can continue.
He also expects the choice of Limerick to be “challenging” to accept for some people living — as he does — in west Clare or those in Tipperary.
“Any development can only work in conjunction with ongoing investment in the region, in relation to community care and the national ambulance service,” he said.
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