New hospital block opening delayed

THREE Clare Government deputies have pledged to lobby Health Minister James Reilly to fast-track the opening of the new €10 million 50-bed block at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital Ennis, which has been delayed until next March.

Clare Fine Gael TDs, Pat Breen and Joe Carey and Labour Deputy Michael McNamara have promised to ask Minister Reilly to allocate the necessary resources to ensure the first Strategy for the Control of Antimicrobial Resistance in Ireland (SARI) compliant hospital facility in the country, public or private, opens much earlier than the latest projected date of March.
Even though the new hospital wing, with 50 en suite bathrooms, will be finished by the end of October, The Clare Champion has learned that it will not become fully operational for patients until over three months later than what was initially anticipated.
Deputy Breen said he is very anxious to ensure the HSE would provide additional resources, if necessary, to operate this new unit, in order that it will be SARI-complaint, particularly as the hospital will then have 66 bathrooms to clean.
“I will be raising this matter with Minister Reilly over the coming weeks as I am very anxious to see this unit operational,” he said.
Deputy Joe Carey pointed out every Government department, including the Department of Health, is under severe financial pressure and noted the new facility would help reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections.
Deputy McNamara said he hoped in the long term a new hospital board would be established to run Ennis hospital as outlined in the Programme for Government but acknowledged this would take some time to develop.
HSE West Forum member, Councillor Brian Meaney said the 50-bed in-patient unit may not open later this year due to lack of finance for the necessary staff and the strict implementation of the national recruitment ban.
Councillor Meaney said there are numerous examples in the HSE where new capital developments were completed only to be left lying idle because the necessary staffing had not been put in place and he hoped this situation would not be repeated in Ennis.
A HSE spokeswoman explained the provision of the new ward block at Ennis hospital is effectively to replace existing services to a higher standard of accommodation.
“There will be no additional revenue resources for the operation of this facility and it may be the case that the work profile of some existing grades will change, however. This will be subject to negotiations with staff through the Public Service Agreement.
“The scheduled date for the handover from the contractor is late October 2011. However, the clean-up, commissioning and the transfer to the facility is not envisaged to be completed until March 2012.
“No new revenue resources are envisaged of any substantial nature for health service activities and the immediate challenge is to address the current deficit on expenditure over budget across the Mid-West, of which Ennis General Hospital is a component part,” she stated.