Munster hospital projects face delays as Cork elective hospital timeline slips to 2030
An elective hospital is planned to cater for Cork and neighbouring counties and is expected to see up to 180,000 procedures every year. It will share the HSE campus at St Stephen’s Hospital, Glanmire.
Patients across Munster could see significant changes to the buildings where they receive healthcare this year if projects proceed as planned, although many remain uncertain about the timelines involved.
An elective hospital is planned to cater for Cork and neighbouring counties and is expected to see up to 180,000 procedures every year. It will share the HSE campus at St Stephen’s Hospital, Glanmire.
Announced in 2022, the Department of Health said in 2023 that it was targeting construction in 2026 and completion in 2027. That plan is now aiming to be “shovel ready” by 2030.
The latest target is the submission of a planning permission application “in the middle of this year”, according to health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Cork City Council previously said it has been supporting the HSE in this stage.
Cork is also set to receive one of eight planned surgical hubs, to be located on the grounds of Cork University Hospital, with construction now described as “very far advanced” after originally being expected to begin in mid‑2024.
The facility could carry out up to 5,700 minor operations each year.
New primary care centres are planned for Douglas and Ballyvolane, while construction has already started, after delays, in Youghal and Glanmire.
New nursing homes in Midleton and Cork City remain empty but appear finished having long missed a 2024 deadline.
Five other nursing homes in this public private partnership — involving the HSE and joint venture company Equisisk — are also delayed, as highlighted by TDs nationally, including Social Democrats' health spokesman Padraig Rice.
University Hospital Kerry is to receive a new oncology unit as part of plans for a 96-bed block expansion.
It follows sustained advocacy from patients and politicians, including Fianna Fáil's Mikey Sheehy.
The county is also due to receive an additional 108 beds before 2031 under national plans.
A new 130-bed nursing home has been built in Killarney as part of a seven-unit public private partnership but is also not yet taking residents.
It could open this year.
Plans to upgrade and replace the 44‑bed adult mental health unit at University Hospital Waterford with a 60‑bed single‑room facility are now included in the capital funding plan.
However, the Dáil last month heard minister of state for mental health Mary Butler and Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane agree this has been long delayed.
Timelines remain unclear, with a design team to be appointed by June as a first step.
The hospital is also due to receive a new 96-bed ward, a multi-storey car park, a two-storey laboratory extension, and other plans.
No dates have been announced for when any of this will be complete.
A surgical hub is also planned for the city on Maypark Lane.
It is one of five hubs expected to open this year, following delays since an original target of mid‑2024, and will include two operating theatres alongside additional care facilities.
The capital plan for this year shows €2.56m for projects in North Tipperary and €3.2m for health-related investment in South Tipperary.
The north of the county falls under HSE Midwest and so is linked to the ongoing concerns around bed shortages and overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
Part of the solution is expected to include the phased opening of a new primary care centre in Nenagh from June.
This will also hold Tusla offices, according to an update issued to Labour TD Alan Kelly.
A nursing home has opened having faced long delays when it was temporarily repurposed by the HSE for hospital use.
In Clonmel, funding has been allocated to begin the appraisal process for a new ambulance base, while work is continuing on the new nursing home under the public private partnership.
As with the aforementioned projects, this had been expected to be completed in 2024.
Ennis hospital, like Nenagh, is connected to UHL and its associated pressures. It is being expanded, with services including a new X-ray room, which is already in use.
Other developments are further off, with plans for a further 48 beds, two operating theatres, and additional works having only reached the design stage under a national development plan running from 2024 to 2031.
Construction has started on the Gort Road for a new haemodialysis service, set to open by December.
Locals have expressed disappointment at the direction of HSE plans for a second emergency department in the region.
The county now appears set to remain dependent on Limerick for emergency care, despite concerns around ambulance access and overcrowding.
Politicians have called for an air ambulance base to be established in west Clare.
Construction work continues on site at UHL as part of its expansion plans.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation conference this week heard evidence of the impact of the works, with one nurse describing patients struggling to hear doctors over the noise and dust during treatment.
A site was announced in Patrickswell for a new hospital in March, but the project board to oversee its development has yet to be appointed, and no chair has been named to lead it.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said at its announcement that she wanted a report from this board by the autumn.
The surgical hub in Limerick is running behind schedule and could open in December, having originally been planned for 2024 and subsequently for earlier this year.
Concerns have been raised as the project is now facing funding difficulties.
The city is also set to receive a new primary care centre on Mulgrave Street, on the grounds of St Joseph’s Hospital.
Public expenditure minister Jack Chambers says the Critical Infrastructure Bill has flexibility to allow for hospitals or other structures to be considered.
That is for future projects.
So the question for the HSE regions and health ministers is whether this ambitious list of projects can be closed out in time to meet the needs of the thousands on waiting lists across these counties.
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