Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill announced on Tuesday, March 10, that land had been secured in Raheen for the planned new hospital site linked to UHL.
She said that it was too early to say exactly how many more beds could be accommodated, or whether the campus would include a second emergency department.
Watch: Limerick Voice TV preview of upcoming UHL site development package
The 43 acres were purchased by the HSE for €14 million, and is speculated to be complete in 15-20 years time.
The announcement comes after years of overcrowding at UHL and scrutiny after a HIQA report detailed a number of systemic issues at the Limerick hospital. The expert review raised several possible solutions, one of which was the expansion of a secondary site near UHL.
The Health Minister says the new site situated between Ballycummin Avenue and the Patrickswell Road is most in line with the proposed campus option, saying that she is focusing on resolving “all of the recommendations of the HIQA report and go beyond them”.
Limerick Mayor John Moran celebrated the announcement, saying “better healthcare facilities are long overdue”. He also suggested that, for a hypothetical timeline of 15-20 for the expansion, the land could be used to station modular homes in the meantime.
“With the smart homes that we have also offered to the HSE… we can put smart homes on it, and actually have housing right on the site.
Given the scale of the project, Limerick Labour TD Conor Sheehan warned that good news must be backed with action. He shared “the ball is firmly in the court of Minister Jack Chambers and his Department. DPER must become an enabler, not a blocker, of this critical piece of infrastructure.
“He needs to confirm to the people of Limerick that he as a Minister will do whatever it takes to get this project up and running and completed.”
The ‘Friends of Ennis’ campaign argued that while 30 percent of HSE Mid-West’s catchment of 500,000 people currently reside in Clare, their travel times to care are not prioritised.