THE green light has been given at Government-level for the HSE to acquire a 43-acre site outside Limerick City to help relieve pressure on University Hospital Limerick.
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is reported to have given the green light to the HSE to acquire 43 acres of land at Raheen, with a view to the expansion of services at University Hospital Limerick.
It is understood that the Minister will visit Limerick tomorrow to make an official announcement on the new site.
According to the Clare Echo, the news was confirmed by Limerick TD and Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan at the opening of the €213m Bon Secours Limerick Hospital, who said: “I’ve had a very good conversation with the Minister for Health who has really been driving the modernisation, change, reform, and investment into University Hospital Limerick. She has confirmed to me that she has given consent for the acquisition of 43 acres for the HSE for an additional hospital campus at Raheen.”
The move would appear to be in tandem with the ‘Option B’ presented by health watchdog HIQA in its report on emergency healthcare in the Mid West, which was for the expansion of the UHL campus in Dooradoyle to a second site in close proximity under a shared governance and resourcing model.