New elective hospital may replace Mercy and South Infirmary
A project board has been established to drive the development of a new elective hospital that could ultimately replace the Mercy University Hospital and the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in Cork.
The new build, which will result in the relocation of elective surgeries from Cork University Hospital, will include a diagnostics centre and possibly a primary care centre. The location should be decided by the end of the year.
The board, chaired by Professor Geraldine McCarthy, held its first meeting this month. Prof McCarthy, who is also chair of the South/Southwest Hospital Group, said four main workstreams have been identified.
They are:
Those driving the individual workstreams will have terms of reference and report to the chair. Prof McCarthy said a business case was submitted to the Department of Health in 2017 and an amended one in 2018 for an elective hospital and diagnostics centre and the possibility of a primary care centre.
The new hospital would allow the transfer of more elective surgery out of CUH where bed demand is constantly high.
“Electives are not getting done to the extent that they should be when a hospital has an emergency department,” said Prof McCarthy. With an elective/ambulatory hospital where GPs could directly refer patients, “we would get a lot of work done uninterrupted”.
Prof McCarthy said the project board asked the chief executives of the Mercy, South Infirmary, and CUH to identify what they think could be facilitated in such a facility with strong input from clinical leads and consultants.
Asked if the new hospital would mean the closure of the Mercy and South Infirmary, Prof McCarthy said: “One or both would close.”
What would happen to the Mercy’s emergency department is unclear.
Prof McCarthy said she would hope the bulk of the service redesign work will be completed by the autumn, after which they would present their plan to the HSE and Department of Health. Sláintecare, the Government’s blueprint for health reform, commits to deciding on the criteria for site selection for the new hospital, as well as two new electives in Galway and Dublin, in 2019, as well as deciding on the locations.
Prof McCarthy said it would be best if site selection was taken “out of our hands”. She said: “I would hope it would be done independently.”
However, she said the new hospital would have to be within a short distance of CUH.
“I have no fixed belief of where it should be, but it can’t be somewhere that’s more than half an hour away from CUH,” she said.
Asked about funding, Prof McCarthy said they “wouldn’t need a huge amount upfront”.
The Government’s National Development Plan 2018-27 also contains a commitment to three new elective-only hospitals to tackle waiting lists and provide access to diagnostic services.
