New Milestone in Development of Regional Elective Hospitals in Cork and Galway

Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly has announced that the Health Service Executive (HSE) has reached another key milestone in progressing new Regional Elective Hospitals. The HSE has issued a ‘request for tender’ for Phase 1 of the new elective hospitals in Cork and Galway. This tender is for an Architect-led Design Team to provide architectural, design and engineering services and for a Project Control Team to support the HSE to manage, control and administer the design/construction programme. The HSE intends that the teams will be in place in the summer.

The selected sites for the developments are St Stephen\’s Hospital, Sarsfield Court in Cork, and Merlin Park in Galway.

The Design and Project Control Teams will build on the work carried out to date to develop these significant new facilities. The new Elective Hospitals will be separate from existing hospitals and only carry out planned elective surgery, procedures and treatments. This separation of elective from emergency and critical care will lead to fewer cancellations and delays for elective care caused by seasonal surges, localised outbreaks, and surges in emergency attendance. This increase in capacity will be key to tackling waiting lists and reducing waiting times for public patients.

Plans for an elective hospital in Dublin are also well advanced, and the Minister will shortly bring a Memorandum to the government providing an update on the site and progress to date.

As part of the wider Elective Care Programme and in advance of the delivery of Elective Hospitals, the HSE is currently developing six new Surgical Hubs at sites across the country. Two Surgical Hubs in Dublin (Swords and Mt Carmel) are due to become operational this year, with those in Limerick, Waterford, Cork and Galway becoming operational in 2025. These are modelled on the successful Reeves Day Surgery Unit at Tallaght which has significantly reduced waiting times for a number of elective procedures.

(Source: Department of Health )