*Chairperson of Friends of Ennis Hospital, Angela Coll. Photograph: Tom Micks.
AN ANNOUNCEMENT is to be made before St Patrick’s Day on whether the Mid-West’s new hospital will be located in Clare, Limerick or Tipperary.
Friends of Ennis Hospital Chairperson, Angela Coll said HSE Estates have pinpointed their preferred location for the Mid-West’s new hospital.
TDs that have been briefed on the desire of health officials to locate the new hospital a quarter of an hour from University Hospital Limerick. This would suggest Cratloe is the nearest Clare location with access to the motorway network that could be the site for the new hospital.
HIQA’s long-awaited review on the future of emergency health services in the Mid-West published in September with three options.
Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG) before Christmas confirmed that all three options would be delivered on. Option A is expanding capacity at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), Option B is extending the UHL campus with a new second site in close proximity under a shared governance and resourcing model, Option C is the construction of a new hospital in the Mid-West with a second emergency department.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting organised by Friends of Ennis Hospital, Coll stated that the decision for Option B’s location has been made. “A site has been identified by HSE Estates, they said a site has been identified and there will be an announcement on where it is before St Patrick’s Day”.
Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) told the meeting, “We don’t know where Option B will be, they are saying fifteen minutes from the Dooradoyle campus, they keep giving example of Leicester and its motorway network of getting to hospitals within fifteen minutes”.
He cautioned, “the alarm bells are ringing for West Clare because if it is fifteen minutes from UHL that doesn’t get us to Newmarket-on-Fergus or Ennis, that is the bit it doesn’t deal with”.
Deputy Crowe said stories ran by The Limerick Leader reporting that Patrickswell was the location for Option B were premature and that suggestions had been floated for Patrickswell by prospective landowners and developers.
“I’d love to know where it is, I’d love to steal a march here tonight and say where Option B will be located. The truth is it will be fifteen minutes from University Hospital Limerick and it involved decanting units from UHL”.
