Planning permission is being sought to demolish the former emergency department building at UHG in order to clear the ground for the new one.
The Health Service Executive has submitted and application to the county council to demolish temporary prefab buildings which had been used for out patient services.
The HSE also intends to knock two permanent single storey buildings, one of which was used for the former emergency department, and the other of which held ancillary services.
This is to clear the site for the planned construction of a new permanent Emergency Department and Women’s and Children’s Department.
University Hospital Galway moved the emergency department to a new location at the front of the hospital last October to vacate this area.
“Notwithstanding the requirement to remove the buildings to clear the site, the greater part of the buildings have reached the end of their useful life,” the Architectural Statement submitted with the application states.
“There are also significant infrastructural problems associated with them, particularly foul drainage. The buildings have been built over the existing foul drainage system and parts of it are inaccessible.”
It states that there ongoing maintenance problems in this area, resulting in foul odours and blockages in the system.
“Reinstatement works comprise blocking up openings which previously formed links between the hospital main block and the buildings to be removed, reinstating roads and footpaths to a safe condition and temporary surfacing of the site.”
The site will also need to be fenced off after demolition is completed for underground site and services investigations to be carried out before the new Emergency Department is built.
A decision on this planning application is due from Galway County Council by May 3 of this year.
Notwithstanding these demolition works, it will be some time before the new permanent emergency department is built, with the project not expected to be delivered until 2027 at the earliest.
