A senior estate manager has been appointed to bring the upgraded masterplan for University Hospital Galway to fruition as nearly €90m has been allocated to improve the health infrastructure in the city and county this year.

This new manager will work alongside a design team which is progressing the ‘Development Control Plan’ for the University Hospital Galway (UHG) campus that is almost complete. This will be followed by a detailed timeline for delivery of major projects which will transform the Newcastle site.

A total of €14m has been allocated for UHG and over €60m for Merlin Park University Hospital with a further €3m for Portiuncula – what remains of the €87.8m budget is divided out between HSE buildings throughout the county.

The massive amount of funding will see very little opening this year as projects run the gauntlet of lengthy design and tendering processes.

In Merlin Park, building work has begun on the new surgical hub to include two operating theatres and two minor procedure rooms and a Cystic Fibrosis Unit to accommodate adult Cystic Fibrosis outpatient services over five days.

St Anne’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry unit is also being extended and reconfigured while the community nursing units 5 and 6 are being replaced and will accommodate 60 patients, including those with dementia.

Builders have also moved into UHG to create a third endoscopy suite.

Galway projects listed as at tender stage or contractually committed include the phased upgrade and replacement of the hot water system at UHG and the relocation of the Public Health Microbiology Laboratory to a new building to increase its capacity.

Minister for State with responsibility for Disability, Hildegarde Naughton, said she had been advocating for major spending on infrastructure in Merlin Park Hospital and calling for the separation of acute and elective services between two campuses since her election.

“The €40 million allocated to the Interim Surgical Hub in Merlin Park this year, due to be completed at the end of the year, will provide a significant uplift in surgical capacity for the region. It will reduce waiting times for day case procedures by significantly increasing the capacity for elective day case surgery in a dedicated facility,” she stated.

“€1.7 million has been provided to progress our new Elective Hospital on the grounds of Merlin Park and to advance phase 2 of the outpatient infrastructure, phase one already being operational, which will provide 77 additional consulting rooms, associated treatment rooms, and other associated facilities.

“The €14.25 million for UHG will progress a new ward block including enabling works, a new cancer centre, a new Emergency Department with ward block and new medical laboratory.

“This new building phase in UHG is premised on a new masterplan for the hospital agreed with the HSE. It will involve decanting nearly all elective and outpatient services to Merlin Park Hospital, providing space in UHG for what will be, by completion, an effective rebuild of the entire campus.

“It will be done on a phased basis, beginning with a new ward block, for which funding is allocated this year for preparatory work.”

Pictured: Minister for State with responsibility for Disability, Hildegarde Naughton.