Diggers will be on site in the next six weeks to commence work on the new elective surgical hub on the grounds of Merlin Park Hospital which is set to open next year.
The financial provision for 180 staff for the facility has been confirmed by local TD, Minister of State, Hildegarde Naughton.
With construction work on the surgical hub, which will feature four operating theatres, two minor procedure rooms, and ancillary facilities, set for December this year, Minister Naughton says that securing sufficient staff funding for the 180 people required to operate the facility was 'vital'.
“While construction work will get underway prior to Christmas, it was vital to ensure that financial provision was made for the approximately 180 people that will be required to operate the facility. I am pleased to say that this was achieved in the recent budget and the new Elective Hub is on track to open next year."
The new elective surgical hub will serve as an 'interim measure' for Galway and the wider west until the 'Elective Hospital' is up and running. Announced in December 2022, the elective hospital will include eight operating theatres, seven endoscopy suites and nine minor operations rooms, culminating in a forecast ability to 'provide 175,000 additional procedures, treatments and diagnostic appointments per year'.
“While this new Hub is an interim measure prior to the building of our new elective hospital, it is vital that everything is done to ensure it opens next year. There are too many people on waiting lists for elective surgery in Galway and the West. This new hub aims to treat approximately 900 people a week, and, in due course, nobody will wait more than 12 weeks for elective day case surgery.
“This new Elective Surgical Hub for Galway, consisting of four operating theatres, two minor procedure rooms, and ancillary facilities, is a vital interim measure to ensure that elective procedures, such as endoscopy, minor operations, outpatient treatment and outpatient diagnostics services, can be carried out away from the UHG site thus ensuring that they are not cancelled when bed pressures are acute in UHG.
“Staff, including nurses, for this new facility will be recruited in advance and commence employment once the new Elective Hub opens next year,” the Minister said.
The new hub will be modelled on the Reeves Day Surgery Centre in Tallaght University Hospital. An 82 per cent reduction in patients waiting longer than 12 months for a 'daycase' procedure in 2022, has been attributed largely to the centre, which opened in 2020. According to the 2022 annual report for Tallaght University Hospital, the waiting list fell from a reported 262 patients in January 2022, to 48 patients by December 2022.
Minister Naughton said, “We are not reinventing the wheel here. We are taking an existing model of care and replicating it in Galway. The new Galway Elective Surgical Hub will be operational next year, thus substantially reducing waiting times for people in the region awaiting elective surgery."
