'Everything on the table' for inclusion in new Limerick hospital

The plans follow warnings from Hiqa to the health minister in September about immediate patient safety risks

University Hospital Limerick's current campus. Picture: Dan Linehan

Limerick's new hospital facility could offer much needed emergency care to a region which has been blighted by overcrowding for a number of years.

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said "everything is on the table" for the new hospital including emergency provision and maternity care.

Following Tuesday’s confirmation that a 44-acre site had been secured in Raheen, calls were immediately made for planning permission to be fast-tracked as is happening with the Rotunda maternity hospital in Dublin.

The Limerick campus will be one of the largest hospital sites in the country with €14m spent on the purchase.

The plans follow warnings from Hiqa to the minister in September about immediate patient safety risks with existing capacity. It advised three options for reform including immediate works, building a hospital facility “in close proximity to” UHL and acute hospital care for the region.

Ms Carroll MacNeill said: “We’ve 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.” 

While a project board is yet to be appointed, she said with expect a report from it by the autumn.

A number of tragic deaths including that of Clare teenager Aoife Johnston lay behind Hiqa’s calls for change.

Asked when a second emergency department could open for the region, the minister told the Irish Examiner: “This is part of that, everything is on the table here because of the nature of the site that we’ve acquired. 

There is no question but that emergency services have to be expanded here.

Separate plans are also in the very early stages for re-locating University Maternity Hospital Limerick to the UHL campus.

Asked whether this could be moved instead to the new site, Ms Carroll MacNeill said: “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?"

Reacting to the plans John Wall, chair of the HSE Midwest Patient and Service User Council said the minister’s statements are “very welcome".

However, he said: “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 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.

• Niamh Griffin is Health Correspondent.