The future of the €70 million "Blackrock Clinic" for Galway has been placed in doubt, following suspension of construction work at the 4.9-acre site.
The 100-bed Western Medical Clinic at Doughiska on the east side of the city is due to open next September, and more than 30 medical consultants had signed up to work there.
An estimated €16 million has already been spent on the building. However, concern had been expressed in recent weeks by the developer, Mr James Sheehan of Blackrock Medical Partners, an orthopaedic surgeon, about the lack of support for the project from the VHI, the State's major health insurer.
The VHI says it has had no formal negotiations with the Western Medical Clinic because it does not have a policy of "providing comfort" to builders and developers. Once a new hospital was up and running, it was prepared to look at its needs for the year and enter into negotiations, a VHI spokeswoman said.
However, a Pricewaterhouse Coopers report on health needs in Galway over the next five years had not identified the need for a 100-bed hospital. The report had identified the need for radiotherapy and cardiac services, the spokeswoman added.
The developers have said the clinic would provide services to both private and public patients from the entire western seaboard area and the midlands, and have pledged that a minimum of 20 per cent of the hospital's beds will be available to public patients through the treatment purchase scheme in an effort to reduce public waiting lists. It had been envisaged the first patients would be treated next June.
