THE NEW €213 million Bon Secours private hospital at Ballysimon in Limerick is already taking patients from University Hospital Limerick (UHL), with 12 public patients in a dedicated ward as the hospital was officially opened this Monday (March 9).
Asked by the Limerick Post what the public/private co-operation model between UHL and the new hospital will look like, CEO of Bon Secours Limerick Jason Kenny said “there are 12 UHL patients here today”.
Mr Kenny said that the dedicated Barringtons Ward in the hospital is now accepting medical patients who have been “quite rightly treated in the acute hospital and are now here for follow-on treatment”.
The agreement to accommodate patients who have had serious medical intervention is one way in which it is envisaged that the new facility will support and relieve pressure from UHL.
Agreements have been reached with the HSE in the Patient Treatment Purchase Fund and other areas that will allow the private hospital to cater for public patients.
Developed and built from a greenfield site in under three years, the new Bon Secours envisages seeing between 100,000 and 120,000 patients through the doors in the first year for diagnostics and medical procedures.
And the hospital is in the process of developing a new cancer treatment centre, in co-operation with UPMC, which it is hoped will be operational by next September.
The hospital’s five-storey clinical services hub will deal with out-patients and has already introduced services which are a first for the Mid West, including PET CT scans and private mamography.
Limerick Minister Patrick O’Donovan performed the official opening and unveiling of the commemorative plaque.
He paid tribute to the Sisters of the Bon Secours Order, who were among the invited representatives at the opening.
He also said a “very clear corner has been turned in the recent past” with Bernard Gloster at the head of the HSE.
“It has taken strong leadership and someone with a gift of knowledge of the Mid West, in particular the issues that are prone to the Mid West, to really take the issues by the horns and put a put a grasp on it from the HSE point of view,” the Minsiter said.
“Bernard Gloster, I think everyone will agree, has done an amazing job leading healthcare in Ireland over the last number of years.”
Asked by the Limerick Post if there are lessons for the HSE in the speed with which the massive private facility was realised, Minister O’Donovan said the public system is subject to very different due diligence to private industry when planning a project as large as a hospital or any major project which involves public money.
Mayor John Moran, also attending the official opening, paid tribute to all involved in the project.
Speaking to the Limerick Post afterwards, he said the goal for the region is still “a new (public) hospital” (as recommended under the recent HIQA review into emergency care treatment in the Mid West), with negotiations ongoing on where that would be sited.
Asked whether it should be in Limerick or closer to other areas under pressure of time and distance for patient travel, the Mayor said his support is for a Limerick location.
It is “vital that when we plan, we do so for a sustainable Limerick. We need to look at locations which are accessible for people in Limerick for people in Clare and Nenagh”, he said
“We need to look at sites near train services, sites where people can live.”
The formal blessing of the new health facility was carried out buy Fr Eamon Fitzgibbon on behalf of the Bishop of Limerick.