Govt UHL bed expansion plans ‘impossible’, says Kelly

The Government’s plan to expand hospital capacity in the midwest is “impossible” under current capital allocations, Labour TD Alan Kelly has said.

Mr Kelly’s comments came as Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she was progressing three measures to expand hospital capacity in the region.

The Government pledged to implement a blend of all three options in the HIQA report to address overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick, including securing a site for a new hospital in the midwest.

HIQA recommended three options: expanding capacity at University Hospital Limerick, adding a second site in close proximity to the Dooradoyle campus or building a new hospital with a second emergency department.

While welcoming the announcement “in principle”, Labour TD for Tipperary North Alan Kelly questioned whether the Government would commit to the financial capacity to deliver the plan.

Minister Carroll MacNeill made the announcement after receiving approval at today’s Cabinet meeting, which she said will inform investment and give short, medium and long-term plans for healthcare services for the people of the region.

The minister said current plans to increase capacity at UHL will deliver up to 306 beds and will progress Option A.

She said, with additional beds planned for other Model 2 Ennis, Nenagh and Saint John’s Hospitals in the region, this would represent 420 additional beds in the region from 2024 to the end of the Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan in 2031.

Minister Carroll MacNeill, speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, said while extra capacity will be developed at UHL additional measures are needed to ease pressure on the hospital.

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“We will deliver extra beds, but at the same time, we are also trying to remove services from the Dooradoyle site that don’t need to be there,” she said.

The minister said they are developing a surgical hub which will remove about 10,000 procedures away from University Hospital Limerick into a surgical hub.

“So the sort of scheduled procedures that you might expect that don’t need to be in an acute hospital, which should be for very, very, very sick people or people who have experienced a trauma,” she said.

To progress Option B, the minister said she will mandate the HSE to secure an available appropriate adjacent site, establish a project board and further explore the opportunities for decanting services away from the main Dooradoyle campus.

She said there is ongoing work by the HSE to identify a site in the general Limerick area but would not drawn further on the matter. “I don’t want to say something that then has a price implication for a particular site,” she said.

Minister Carroll MacNeill said consideration will also be required for what services can be “relocated or decanted” to Ennis, Saint John’s and Nenagh to decongest the Dooradoyle site.

To progress Option C – a new hospital – the minister and the Department of Health will “develop a strategic plan for the incremental strategy of organising services and investment in healthcare services in the Mid West”.

‘Seminal decision’ – HSE CEO

HSE CEO Bernard Gloster said what the Minister for Health has brought forward today was the “perfect solution” for the delivery of healthcare in the midwest.

He said that the HSE had done initial scoping but there are now a number of processes to go through, but they will be done as quickly as possible.

He added that the HSE want the site to be in close or relative proximity to Dooradoyle in Limerick and that it would be accessible and would have scope for expansion, but there are commercial considerations to that as well as other things.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News, he said that funding will come from Government capital funding through the National Development Plan.

He said that his job was to keep coming back with shovel ready projects, and the Government is clear in its commitment to seeing the projects through.

He said his biggest concern about staffing was sustaining growth, saying that the HSE’s job is to increase the clinical placement training and retain those people to work in the health service in Ireland.

Capacity ‘isn’t there’ – Kelly

Citing the deaths of Niamh McNally (16), Eve Cleary (21), Leona Cusack (33), and Aoife Johnston (16) in acute care in the midwest, Mr Kelly said the people of the region had been subjected to discrimination over the last 20 years due to being underserved by healthcare.

“The reality is that we need close on 600 beds in the midwest by 2040,” he said.

“However, the capital envelope for this is too small. It’s €9.2bn up to 2030.

“The capacity of us to actually deliver on this as a country isn’t there.”

He said: “Without that financial capacity, this plan – with all the goodwill of the minister and everyone else – cannot be delivered on.

“It is impossible. It just doesn’t add up.”

Representing the Government, Taoiseach Micheal Martin also acknowledged the “shocking” deaths of the women and teenage girls referenced by Mr Kelly.

“From that, there is no question that the Mid West needs additional investment – but also reform,” he said.