60-bed unit at University Hospital Limerick on target for completion by year’s end

THE new 60-bed unit at University Hospital Limerick is on course to be completed later this year. Fianna Fáil Minister and TD for Limerick Niall Collins has welcomed the news saying the new modular unit will help deal with capacity issues in the region.

“Acknowledgement by the HSE that this project is due to be completed in Q4 later this year is very positive news for the region as the University Hospital Limerick has been struggling for some time with capacity issues,” said Minister Collins.

“This new 60-bed modular unit will play a vital role in the functioning of the hospital and hopefully reduce the numbers of patients waiting on beds as we approach the winter season.”

In an interview with the Limerick Leader in May, the chief executive officer of UL Hospitals Group, Colette Cowan said “construction workers are on site and the plan for handover is November”. 

Units for the modular build landed at University Hospital Limerick in early February. 

“Since December 2017, an additional 25 beds have opened in University Hospital Limerick. A capital budget of €19.5million has been approved for the provision of this 60-bed modular inpatient ward block at the hospital, with funding of €10 million allocated in 2019.

“I am very pleased that the HSE has confirmed that enabling works on this unit are now complete and the main contractor is now on site. The unit is on course to be finished later this year,” continued Minister Collins.

The units were installed on site in February by a mobile crane. The ward block will provide an additional 60 beds for the hospital, all single patient rooms with ensuites. The additional single rooms will help to improve patient comfort, safety, privacy and dignity and assist with the management of infection control in the hospital.

While Ms Cowan said that the extra beds on the UHL site “will assist in the capacity challenges that we have, there is no doubt that we will be, as always, challenged to deal with the footfall of patients that come into the only Model 4 hospital that we have in the Limerick region.”

Latest figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show there were 33 people on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick on Friday morning – the largest figure for a hospital in the country. There were 27 on trolleys in the hospital’s emergency department and six in wards elsewhere in the hospital.