New Limerick surgical hub to miss May opening deadline and only get half the funding it needs to operate

Facility to ease pressure on UHL by providing day surgery will now not open before year end

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the hub would improve access to day surgery in multiple surgical specialists, as it would be 'operating as a satellite' of UHL. Picture: Dan Linehan

A new surgical hub to alleviate pressure on University Hospital Limerick (UHL) will open before the end of year, after missing the May deadline.

Located at the former Scoil Carmel site on O’Connell Avenue in the city, the facility was due to open this month, while it had emerged the hub would only get half the funding it requires to operate.

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the surgical hub would “significantly increase theatre capacity in the region”.

Ms MacNeill was responding to a parliamentary question from Limerick TD Conor Sheehan.

“The complex will have four operating theatres and two procedure rooms, as well as additional consultation and assessment rooms, recovery bays, and functional support space,” she said.

She said the hub would improve access to day surgery in multiple surgical specialists, as it would be “operating as a satellite" of UHL.

“The Limerick surgical hub will treat large numbers of routine day case patients, freeing up hospital capacity for more complex procedures and helping people get surgery sooner,” Ms McNeill said.

“Once fully operational, the hub will be expected to deliver additional annual activity of circa 8,000 day case procedures, 5,700 minor ops procedures, and approximately 18,500 outpatient department appointments,” she added.

Limerick TD Maurice Quinlivan criticised the Government’s lack of urgency regarding the healthcare crisis in the Mid-West after it emerged the HSE would be allocating just half the funding needed for the surgical hub.

Mr Quinlivan told the Dáil UHL was not receiving the support that it needs.

“Compare UHL with UHW in Waterford. Despite UHL having double the number of presentations at its emergency department, University Hospital Waterford has more consultants than UHL. This is a clear demonstration of the years of underfunding for the Mid-West.

“Compounding this neglect of the Mid-West is confirmation, by the HSE, that the opening of the Limerick Surgical Hub, which was planned to open in May, is now not expected until end of year. However, what is much more concerning is that HSE are only allocating funding of 50% of what is necessary to operate the hub,” he said.

Mr Quinlivan added with only half of the budget the hub requires, it would “struggle to achieve 10,000 procedures”.