Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, pictured with the Mayor of Limerick John Moran and (right) Patrick O’Donovan, Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport. Picture: Don Moloney
A DECISION will be made before Christmas on whether a new hospital will be built in Ennis, the Minister for Health has confirmed.
Responding to questions from The Clare Echo during a visit to University Hospital Limerick (UHL) on Monday, the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG) stated that a decision would be made before Christmas on which option from HIQA’s review of emergency care in the Mid-West they would be backing.
HIQA’s report set out three options, these include expanding the existing UHL campus in Dooradoyle, expanding at a new site, or building a new hospital. “All of the options are on the table,” the Minister stated.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said in response to The Clare Echo said an option would be picked before Christmas.
She stated, “HIQA have very clearly identified options A and options B as being the priorities to meet the patient safety need of having more acute hospital beds on site as quickly as possible. You can understand that would be my priority. But all the options are on the table”.
According to the Minister, she is “open to all three options that HIQA have identified”, her “priority” is to provide capacity in the short term. Works have already begun on a second 96-bed block on the UHL site with a third proposed. She said the current plan to add capacity at the UHL site will transition the region from having the “lowest per capita in-bed ratio” in 2020, to having “the second-highest in the country” by 2028.
Work is ongoing between the HSE and Department of Health before the matter is brought before Cabinet, the Minister said. “I will be liaising with public representatives, with the patient council, who are a very important voice in Limerick and the Mid-West. They’ve given me a guide as to what they’d like me to se, but I will be having detailed discussions with them before I bring anything to Cabinet. I want to hear the patient voice articulated and articulated strongly”.
On the possibility of reopening emergency departments in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s which closed in 2009, the Minister commented, “It’s not as straight-forward as re-opening an A&E (accident and emergency unit) if the supporting services aren’t there for someone who has come in a major trauma. What we are going is putting more beds into some of the model two hospitals. We have increased the medical assessment units. We have taken steps to try and support people at home through lower acute interventions. We will expand and prioritise these as we do not want people coming to the emergency department unless they need to.
“It’s not just about an emergency department. It’s about what is behind it. That’s where we have to take the most-balanced decision as to where is the capacity is support someone who comes”.
