Minister’s commitment to 69 new hospital beds for Sligo
Sligo University Hospital (SUH) and the Saolta University Health Care Group has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Health of 43 new beds for the hospital and a further 26 at St John’s Hospital.
The plan will see the commencement of adult acute inpatient beds over the course of the next seven years.
The new beds include 26 medical beds at a refurbished ward at St John’s Hospital which will be under SUH governance, the building of a 42 bed ward block at SUH and a further bed already committed to.
The design team has been appointed for the St John’s refurbishment works and is now awaiting approval to proceed with upgrading works.
The main contractor for the ward block works at SUH is expected to proceed to site in Q3 of this year.
“We welcome the commitment to enhancing infrastructure and capacity that we know we badly need in our region. This investment will help address the Urgent and Emergency Care pressures and support a regional balance of capacity provision,” said Ann Cosgrove, Interim CEO of the Saolta University Health Care Group.
Grainne McCann, SUH hospital manager also welcomed the announcement adding: “These new beds will greatly benefit our local communities and we look forward to progressing these plans as quickly as possible.”
The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announced an additional overall 501 beds for the West and North West healthcare region as part of the new Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan.
The plan has been introduced in response to the ongoing Health Service Capacity Review and aims to bring the number of beds in HSE West North West from 2.4 per 100,000 people to 2.8. This will improve access to hospital in-patient care for patients across Mayo, Galway, Sligo and Donegal. It also delivers on the Minister’s commitment to ensure balanced regional bed capacity and to ensure patients across Ireland have equity of access.
The plan includes:
228 new beds for Galway University Hospital
96 new beds for Mayo University Hospital
72 new beds for Letterkenny University Hospital
69 new beds for Sligo University Hospital
16 new beds for Portiuncula University Hospital
20 new beds for Roscommon General Hospital
The development in the West and North West Region forms part of a major national plan which marks the biggest expansion of bed capacity in the health service in several decades, with a total of 3,352 additional acute inpatient beds planned for delivery across three tranches up to 2031.
The plan does not include rehab, subacute or specialist beds.
Minister Donnelly said: “The next seven years will see extensive expansion in hospital capacity across the West and North West region. It is vital that our health service responses to the healthcare needs of the population, and I’m confident that this plan will help to deliver a better service for people across Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Sligo and Donegal.
“We’re building on the significant investment in the region in the last few years, with 37 new beds coming on stream this year. As we look towards the future and consider changing demographics across the region, we need to deliver increased capacity to provide quality care.
“Additional capacity in acute inpatient beds will bring us closer to our goal of ensuring that people in the West and North West receive the right care in the right place at the right time.”
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