I recently asked the Minister for Health for an update on the development of the elective hospital at Merlin Park in Galway. Looking back at some documents I have, I note that the elective hospital was first proposed in 2018. It was also included as part of the national Sláintecare programme. It has been included in every HSE capital plan up to 2025. The description in each of those documents has been for an elective hospital. In 2026, when the HSE published its national service plan, I noticed that there had been a slight change of language. It was no longer described as an elective hospital but as an elective care centre. Following that, I put this question to the Minister which was referred on to local HSE officials as commonly occurs but the response I received is quite concerning. It stated: The HSE have identified the need to refine the scope and budget of the planned Elective Care Centres. [...] The result was a substantial reduction in the building area and in turn, overall cost. [The original building area in the scoping document had been for a building of between 60,000 sq. m and 80,000 sq. m] The design team are currently investigating the possibility of expanding or bolting-on the new facility to what will be an Operational Surgical hub. It is hard to consider that this is not a serious reduction in what had been planned as part of the elective hospital development in Galway. Furthermore, I am advised that the new facility, or care centre as it will now be called, will consist of two operating theatres, where the original plan had been, I think, for 11 operating theatres, five endoscopy procedure rooms, where I understand there had been eight procedure rooms in the initial resource requirements, and ten minor operation procedure rooms. In the elective hospital there were also plans for radiology and diagnostic modalities, outpatient rooms and pre-assessment rooms and there was a proposal for 200 beds - 75 inpatient and 125 day case beds. It comes as a deep disappointment to me, and I know it will to my constituents and indeed to the wider region, because part of this plan was to facilitate the decanting of the university hospital site in Galway, which is due for significant capital development and investment. I am concerned that not alone are we losing a facility where there was going to be 200 beds but this decision will not facilitate as easily the capital investment and expansion and development of University Hospital Galway, which is so badly needed. I hope I am misinterpreting the response but I am concerned that I am not. A decision of such significance should have been discussed and debated further and possibly information should have been provided before that. In terms of the elective hospitals, my understanding was that Galway was part of a package that included an elective hospital in Cork and Dublin. Where do they stand as well?

Sentiment score: 0.08

The first thing I should have said is that I appreciate the Minister of State being here as a Minister of State in the Department of Health to take this question and provide an answer. However we present this, it is a significant change in what was to be the provision of a facility that had intended at its outset and up to 2025 to provide for 200 beds. I recognise fully the point she made that these are day procedures but I understand from the documentation that had been provided previously that there were to be 75 elective inpatient beds and 125 day case beds. That had been the position up to March 2025, when I had previously asked for an update. I was advised that the integrated design team was working at pace to progress the detailed design to inform planning submissions on a range of statutory and regulatory approvals to proceed to tender and construction. That was for the elective hospital. It had been perceived to be the development of a 200-bed facility. I understand some of those were only for day case beds. In terms of my reference to there being two theatres on top of the surgical hub, the information that I received from the HSE describes that the elective care centre will consist of two operating theatres plus four operating theatres in the surgical hub. We were always conscious and always felt that there were two developments here, namely, a surgical hub and an elective hospital. I want to reiterate that the development of the elective hospital was seen as something that could facilitate the increased development at the regional hospital site of the university hospital site. As far as I understood it, the plan had always been that elective non-emergency, non-acute outpatient facilities would all move to the Merlin Park site and that the university hospital site would be for acute, high-tech procedures, cancer care, maternity and accident and emergency. I am really concerned about that plan now. I am really concerned about the progression of that plan. We need clarity on that.

Sentiment score: 0.11