New site development for Limerick University Hospital

0:00Well, back home, there's a development this afternoon in the long-running controversy over chronic overcrowding at Limerick University Hospital. Last autumn, a report from the Health Watchdog Hick was said the shortage of beds in the Midwest presented an ongoing risk to patient safety. Well, the HSC has now bought a 44-acre site about two kilometers from the existing hospital. Speaking a short time ago, the Minister for Health Jennifer Carol McNeil said it was a large site. The size of the site is quite important, 44 acres, just to give a little context for that. St. James's Hospital in Dublin, one of our largest hospitals, is 60 acres. The current site in Duradoil is 37 acres. Beaumont Hospital is 20 acres. Corke and Gollway are 41-42 acres. So a 44-acre site is a very, very sizable strategic site. Our Midwest correspondent, Patula Martin, has been following this story. This is a long time coming before we talk about today's development.

1:00Will you remind us quickly of the background to all of this? Well, Rachel, the background dates all the way back to 2009 when a decision was made to close the emergency departments in NS and Nina and centralize services at what was then the Midwestern Regional Hospital, now University Hospital Limerick. And since then, UHL has provided the only 24-hour emergency department in the region, including Limerick, Claire, and North Ibrary, and it also receives patients from parts of North Cork and North Kerry. And it consistently has been making the headlines, as it has the highest number of patients being treated on hospital of Charlies in the country. And last year, a report by Hickquast stated, the core issue is that there are not enough inpatient beds in HSC Midwest, which are capable of treating the sickest patients who are present for urgent or emergency care. It recommended immediate action and investment to address current risks to patient safety in the shortest time frame and safest way possible. And it made three recommendations, one, expand capacity at UHL, to add a second site nearby,

2:04which we heard about today, and three, build a completely new hospital in the Midwest with the second emergency department. And the government pledged late last year that it would implement a blend of all three auctions in the Hickqua report. Tell us then, Petula, about this particular site and about what's planned for it. So the HSC has acquired land quite close to UHL in Georgia oil. It's two kilometers from the hospital. It costs 14 million euro. It's a greenfield site. People familiar with Limerick will know it. If you're leaving UHL, you're going in the direction of Patrick's Wells, or you pass Raheen Church through the roundabout at the South Corp Hotel and Casey's furniture, and the site is at the next roundabout. It's close to the Eli Lilly site, the factory there. At 44 acres, it's bigger than the UHL campus, which is 37 acres. And it'll be one of the biggest hospital campuses in the country, as we heard, the Minister for Health, Jennifer, Carol McNeil mentioned there. Now, there is a project team that will start working on this. It will obviously have to go through the planning process, but we could have news on that

3:07by autumn. The minister said today as the HSC offices in Limerick City. Now, it's been welcomed by HSC Midwest and by clinicians at the hospital, due to its proximity and the fact that the government is acting swiftly on this. That HIGGLE report was out at the end of September last year. Now, there is disappointment in County Claire, in particular, friends of Ennis Hospital had hoped a new hospital would be built closer to Ennis or in Ennis itself. But the minister was keen to point out that the new campus is 28 minutes from Ennis and 28 minutes from Nina. Now, I visited the site earlier today, and from the point we were, it's just over 30 minutes both in the Ennis direction and Nina direction. And it's also close to the M7 motorway, so that makes it accessible to people in temporary and north cork as well. Does this mean, then, patchula, to this announcement that really what we're talking about here is both option B and option C, that this is the new hospital in the Midwest? Exactly. Today's announcement just blend all three. So the 96-bed unit was opened in October.

4:10Another 96-bed unit is under construction at the Doord oil site. And the HIGGLE wants to build this new campus in phases. And ideally, while that construction of the 96-bed unit at UHL is under construction, that they will start building in phases and in different blocks on this new site in Rahin. And so the vision is for this new campus to essentially evolve into a new hospital with it's own emergency department in future. With its own emergency department in future.