Harney makes overcrowding pledge at opening of new facility
Tánaiste Mary Harney today insisted overcrowding at Accident and Emergency wards would ease in the months ahead as she opened a new facility capable of catering for over 40,000 such attendances each year.
The Minister for Health said things were going in the right direction as she opened a €60m building – the centrepiece of the €250m redevelopment project at St Vincent’s University Hospital in south Dublin.
“I did say some months ago that the HSE should treat it as an emergency and they are,” she said.
“They’ve put a wonderful group of people together who’ve now visited all of the hospitals and I’m delighted to say we’ve a 49% improvement this June as opposed to last June and although we haven’t gotten there yet, we’re going in the right direction.”
Ms Harney said she was meeting with the A&E taskforce this evening to hear its proposals to ease pressure on services.
The new Clinical Services Building at St Vincent’s, a 14,000sqm, five storey over-basement building is designed to accommodate the renewal of all the major treatment and diagnostic areas of the hospital and create an Ambulatory Day Care Centre for outpatient one-day procedures.
The new building will cater each year for in excess of 40,000 A&E attendances, including 10,000 admissions, 100,000 outpatients and 15,000 day care patients, 4m pathology tests and in excess of 120,000 x-rays.
The state of the art facility will provide accommodation for departments including:
:: An Intensive Care Unit and High Dependency Unit (16 beds)
:: Radiology & Diagnostic Imaging Services
:: Pathology Department
:: Ambulatory Day Care Centre
:: Outpatient Department
:: Operating theatres
Previously completed buildings as part of overall project on the campus include:
:: BreastCheck building for National Breast Screening Programme
:: 54 Bed Psychiatry Unit
:: Pharmacy building
:: Mortuary/post-mortem facility
:: New Road and Surface Car Parking
:: Waste marshalling facilities
:: Extensive landscaping and infrastructural works
The redevelopment is being funded principally by the National Development Plan.
