{"id":315351,"date":"2026-02-24T21:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315351\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T21:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T21:10:08","slug":"three-year-wait-for-cork-university-hospital-childrens-units","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/315351\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-year wait for Cork University Hospital children\u2019s units"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">Builders will only start work on new children\u2019s units at Cork University Hospital early next year, HSE South West has said, meaning it will be at least 2029 before it is finished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Planning permission was granted for the six-storey extension in 2022. Healthcare staff and families expected work to begin shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Frustration has been growing at delays in starting the works.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A HSE spokeswoman said: \u201cWe aim to have a contractor on site in Q1 2027, with a 48-month construction programme planned.\u201d However, this timeline is \u201csubject to change as the project progresses\u201d, she added. Tender documents are only due in the last three months of this year. This is also \u201csubject to statutory approvals processes\u201d.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">She added: \u201cPhase one enabling works are due to be completed in Q2 2026, with phase three enabling works due to be completed in Q3 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">If construction does finish in 2029, equipping the units will take some months after that. It will hold 82 in-patient rooms, high dependency units, palliative care, haematology beds, procedure rooms, operating theatres, and diagnostics. Pressures on the supra-regional paediatric service have been well aired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It gets about 25,000 presentations to the emergency department and does 3,500 day procedures every year. In addition, it admits about 5,500 children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Referrals<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Outpatient clinics alone receive almost 6,000 new referrals annually.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Almost all children are treated in Cork with a small number transferred to Children\u2019s Health Ireland in Dublin. This includes about 130 to 140 children transferred to intensive care units every year. CHI runs Ireland\u2019s only children\u2019s ICUs. Small numbers are also transferred for conditions including heart or spinal care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">HSE South West said some pressure will be relieved \u201cin the coming year\u201d with a new assessment unit and high dependency unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Fianna F\u00e1il Cork South Central TD S\u00e9amus McGrath raised the delay in the D\u00e1il with health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill who said tender documents have yet to be issued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">She said: \u201cThe programme and timeline for completion of the new paediatric wing can only be determined based upon the contractors\u2019 tender returns and the contractor ultimately appointed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Mr McGrath described the delays as \u201cdisappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cThis is a very important project for Cork to deliver enhanced paediatric services at the CUH campus.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI welcome the fact that enabling works are progressing on-site, however it\u2019s disappointing that there has been some delay with the proposed commencement of the main construction work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt\u2019s critically important that this project progresses without further delays to ensure completion and operation at the earliest possible time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Builders will only start work on new children\u2019s units at Cork University Hospital early next year, HSE South&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[15607,79,103,397,396,61,60,10452],"class_list":["post-315351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cork-health","tag-cork-news","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-keeping-cork-healthy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}