Ten patients have been sent abroad for bone-marrow transplants since a unit at St James's Hospital was closed by an infection in September.
Replacement units are expected to open this month. The entire episode has cost the hospital about £5 million, most of it in reconstruction costs.
The outbreak of vanomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) affected the 31bed blood/cancer unit and bone-marrow unit contained within it.
VRE is one of the drug-resistant microbes which have evolved following decades of the use of antibiotics. Like the other drug-resistant organisms, it is usually only harmful to people in a vulnerable state, such as after surgery.
Following the VRE outbreak in September, St James's arranged for transplant patients to have the procedure carried out at the Royal Free Hospital in London, at a cost of about £150,000 each.
In the meantime, two physically separate replacement units have been prepared at St James's at a cost of more than £3 million.
The bone-marrow unit includes individual rooms and a range of infection-control facilities. Eleven extra nursing posts have been authorised by the Eastern Regional Health Authority. This will bring staff nursing levels up to those in similar units in the Netherlands, which has dramatically reduced infection in its hospital system.
Ireland is among the "middle" band of hospitals in Europe with relatively high levels of infection of patients. Hospitals in the south of Europe have higher infection levels while those in northern Europe have either greatly reduced or almost eliminated the problem.
Measures such as single rooms, good ventilation systems and facilities which make it easy for busy staff and visitors to wash or otherwise disinfect their hands are among the approaches which have proved successful elsewhere.
pomorain@irish-times.ie