The announcement that the government has signed off on a site for a new elective hospital in Galway has been welcomed by the Saolta Hospital Group.
Saolta, which operates University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park Hospital, said that the new hospital will help reduce waiting lists for operations.
The government gave the green light to Minister Stephen Donnelly for the development of a new elective hospital at Merlin Park, allowing the project to now proceed to the planning stage.
Welcoming today’s announcement, Tony Canavan, CEO of the Saolta Group said, “This is incredibly welcome news for our region. This development will allow us to provide vital services and earlier access to care for our growing population.”
“The greater elective care capacity will also free up capacity in GUH for non-elective and inpatient activity and will lead to better health outcomes for our communities.”
When built, the new hospital will have eight operating theatres, seven endoscopy suites and nine minor operation rooms.
It is predicted that it will be able to provide 175,000 additional procedures, treatments and diagnostic appointments per year.
Procedures in the new elective hospital will be high volume, low-to-medium complexity surgeries which can be efficiently planned with dedicated theatres provided.
The Elective Hospital will be focused on providing Day case, GI Endoscopy, minor operations, outpatient treatment and outpatient diagnostics services.
“The delivery of the elective hospital on the MPUH site will provide the much needed capacity for effective function of the emergency, elective and cancer programmes for the region. However, addressing the sub-optimal facilities and capacity shortfall in UHG is essential,” Tony Canavan said.
He said that the delivery of a new elective hospital is just one of four major developments needed to address the healthcare demands of the Galway catchment area.
The others are the construction of a new emergency department and women and children’s block, a cancer centre and ward block, and replacement laboratory facilities for Merlin Park.
Speaking about the plans announced by the Minister to develop a surgical hub in Galway, Mr Canavan said all initiatives to address waiting lists in the shorter term would be welcomed.
