DETAILS OF a new €10.5 million construction development at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital – which aims to fill significant gaps in the provision of specialist services including cystic fibrosis, neurology, stroke, dermatology and symptomatic breast disease – have been unveiled.
The purpose-built six-storey building on the hospital’s Dooradoyle campus in Limerick will include a new neurological unit which will serve 5,000 patients, catering for 11 conditions including epilepsy, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease.
The Cystic Fibrosis Outpatients Unit will have five treatment rooms and an inpatient unit with nine en suite rooms.
The new Dermatology Outpatient Centre aims to bring all dermatology services together at one location. Figures show that 6,280 dermatology patients were seen in 2010 at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital.
The new Symptomatic Breast Specialist Unit also aims to consolidate services currently fragmented in different areas of the hospital. The latest figures show that 5,500 new and return patients were seen in 2009 at the Breast Services Department of the hospital.
Planning permission for the new development was received last month and construction is due to begin in June, with the various components of the project expected to be operational by January 2013.
Speaking at a news conference in Limerick yesterday, Louis Creaven, chairman of the hospital’s development trust, said it had raised more than €16 million for public hospitals in the midwest since it was founded in 1986.
“Pressure on public finances means that the work of bodies such as the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland, the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland, TLC4CF (the midwest branch of the Cystic Fibrosis Association) and the Mid-Western Hospital’s Development Trust, is today more important than ever in meeting the gaps in the public health service,” he said.
In addition to the €16 million already spent on equipment for midwest-based public hospitals, the trust is now providing €4 million towards the construction costs of the dermatology unit and specialist breast unit.
Tipperary woman Helen Leo, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, welcomed the announcement of the new breast cancer unit.
The 51-year-old mother was treated by Dr Anne Merrigan at the hospital. She said she had “complete faith” in the staff, who were forced to work in an overcrowded prefabricated extension where patients “sit under the stairs in a cramped space while praying that the lump or biopsy or mammogram are all negative”.
“I will always be so grateful to them for making my cancer journey so positive, and I have complete and utter faith in Dr Merrigan and her team.
“The great advantage of the new breast cancer unit is that it will function as an integrated unit, reduce the need to trudge from one area of the hospital to another for various consultations and procedures, and generally make life easier for all concerned,” she said.
Cystic fibrosis patient Katie Drennan, from Ennis, Co Clare, said the difference the new development would make for her quality of life and for many other cystic fibrosis patients was “difficult to summarise”.
The 20-year-old, second-year business studies student at the University of Limerick was diagnosed with the disease when she was just under three years of age. Her 19-year-old brother, Jordan, also has the condition.
“Over the past 20 years I’ve had a lot of experience of the Irish hospital system, some of it good and some quite difficult. I’ve spent a lot of time as an inpatient in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and in St Vincent’s Hospital.
“This wonderful new facility will improve the lives for all cystic fibrosis patients in the midwest region,” she said.
“The benefits of such a unit are many. It means we will not have to travel to other cystic fibrosis centres in Dublin to receive our treatment.
“We will not have to endure long hospital stays away from home. We will no longer fear the risk of cross infection when we attend the hospital for treatments.”
Ms Drennan said the importance of an isolation facility could not be emphasised enough, and she described the recent appointment of Dr Brian Casserly as the first adult cystic fibrosis specialist consultant in Limerick as “a major step forward”.
Speaking after yesterday’s announcement, Una Anderson Ryan, chairwoman of the Parkinson’s Association, said it was impossible to describe the difference the new neurological unit, which includes an acute stroke unit, would make to the lives of so many people.
“A unit like this should be provided in every hospital in the country. Some patients have very difficult symptoms that require privacy, and the smaller wards and private rooms will provide this,” Ms Ryan said.
“Overall, the new unit will be an invaluable resource that will make a significant difference in improving patient care and quality of life.”