Victor Boyhan (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. I thank him for taking this Commencement matter. I received correspondence from the Department of Health last night to suggest that no Minister or Minister of State was available and I understand that. I thank the Minister of State for stepping in at the last minute.

I will address the issue of surgical hubs. For those who do not know, they are located on the sites of Mount Carmel Community Hospital in south Dublin, Swords Business Park in north Dublin, Merlin Park University Hospital in Galway, Cork University Hospital, CUH, in Cork, University Hospital Waterford, UHW, in Waterford and also in Limerick.

Before continuing, I will take this opportunity, given that the Minister of State is a Limerick man and did great work on the Mayor of Limerick election, to congratulate John Moran on his amazing success. He deserves to be acknowledged. I thank the Minister of State for his work on the directly elected mayor for Limerick. Well done to all involved.

There is a proposal to have one of these surgical hubs in Limerick. A planning application was lodged for the development of the hub at the former Scoil Carmel. I do not know what the status of that is and I ask the Minister of State to address it. I would also like him to address Mount Carmel. These surgical hubs are excellent. Their primary focus is to deal with relatively simple procedures, perhaps not day cases, but most likely it will be to address day cases, and get moving on the massive backlogs in surgery. I welcome that and the proposals for Mount Carmel. Will the Minister of State fill us in on those? There is also a proposal for a surgical hub in Swords Business Park. The people there want and need one as the area is growing rapidly. Hubs will be interchangeable. People with particular needs may be directed to another hub. They are not necessarily servicing the immediate community, but the greater part of the greater strategy of need. I welcome that.

Planning permission for the hub at Merlin Park Hospital was granted so the tendering process is now the issue. People, including Fine Gael public representatives at council level as well as TDs and Senators, are asking what is the status of the tender process.Then there is the issue of the planning application lodged for the CUH and the enabling works for that site. Again, there is uncertainty. Where is all that going? I will conclude by talking about Waterford. A planning application was lodged for a hub in Waterford, which I welcome. I looked at the application yesterday. HSE estates seeks to establish a surgical hub that will comprise four operation theatres, and procedure rooms are included in the scheme. Morning and afternoon sessions are envisaged with 150 patients accessing the facility daily. That is very impressive. A maximum of 100 staff will be employed at the hub and it seeks to provide 311 car parking spaces to facilitate moving to this hub. Again, that is impressive and I acknowledge the enormous work my Independent colleague, Deputy Shanahan, has put in here and the work of others to push this forward.

I commend the Government on these six exciting surgical hubs, which are badly needed. I also commend the Minister for Health and all those involved, including the project managers and teams, but we need to get through the planning processes and the tendering processes and have timelines and deadlines for construction and completion. This is a really good news story but I do not want us to be here in six or 12 months asking where we are on this. They need to be proactively pushed forward. I am interested to hear what the Minister of State has to say.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Boyhan in congratulating John Moran on his election as the first directly elected mayor of Limerick and commend all candidates who took part in a very engaging and constructive debate. It put Limerick city and county to the fore national and internationally. I want to acknowledge the cross-party support in the Seanad, as well as in Dáil Éireann, when I brought through the legislation for the directly elected mayor. People were very engaged and we took on quite a number of Opposition amendments and that underpins the role of the directly elected mayor of Limerick.

Returning to Senator Boyhan’s question, I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. I am delighted to be able to provide an update today on the development of surgical hubs. The Government is fully committed to the continued improvement of elective care in Ireland, delivering better and more timely services for everyone. There are a number of ways in which this is being achieved.

Government policy on elective care has been informed by a number of policy documents including the 2017 Sláintecare report and implementation strategy, the 2018 national development plan, the 2020 programme for Government and, most recently, the national elective ambulatory care strategy agreed by the Government in December 2021. This strategy will change the way in which day case, scheduled procedures, surgeries, scans and outpatient services can be better arranged to ensure greater capacity in the future and help to address waiting lists at a national level. The development of additional capacity will be provided through dedicated, stand-alone new elective hospitals in Cork, Galway and Dublin.

We have seen a range of innovative care solutions developed locally. With regard to elective care, the Minister for Health was particularly impressed by the Reeves day surgery unit at Tallaght University Hospital which significantly reduced day surgery waiting times for patients. I am delighted that this surgical hub model is being rolled out nationally by the HSE in the interim before elective hospitals commence delivery.

As the Senator noted, six new surgical hubs are under development and I will provide an update on each today with the most recent information I have from the HSE. The surgical hub in south Dublin will be the first to open. It will be located at Mount Carmel and construction and fit-out are already underway and progressing well. Building completion of phase 1 is currently on track to be delivered for this August. Funding for ICT has been approved and recruitment has commenced.

The surgical hub in north Dublin is to be located in Swords. Construction has commenced and a building superstructure is in place. Recruitment will commence in due course. We expect the remaining hubs in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford to become operational throughout 2025 and early 2026.

With regard to planning, the site at Maypark Lane, adjacent to University Hospital Waterford, received planning permission in April for the new surgical hub. Site acquisition has now concluded, allowing works to commence.

Notification of a decision to grant planning has been received for the Cork, Limerick and Galway hubs, located at Cork University Hospital, Scoil Carmel and Merlin Park, respectively, and I expect planning permission to be granted shortly. Pre-commencement conditions are progressing well for these sites.

I hope that the Senator can appreciate the significant work that has gone into the planning and establishment of these new hubs. Once operational, the hubs will treat more than 150,000 patients each year, providing a significant increase in our elective care capacity. By providing dedicated facilities, we can protect capacity for elective care, but we can also free up capacity elsewhere in the system for those other more complex and emergency cases to be seen in a timely fashion.

I hope the Senator will agree that these new facilities will provide significant and material benefits for all the people of Ireland. I know how important it is to public representatives across Ireland.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that very significant progress has been made on these sites. It is slow and unpredicted issues always crop up but they are all under way at some level, whether it is the finalisation of planning, the tendering process, contract documents and so on. We are realistically talking about 2025 or 2026, as the Minister of State said, for three hubs at least. It is very significant progress. I thank him for the detail and information that is in his response, which I value and appreciate. I wish the Department officials and the project team leaders every success. This is a really good news story. The message is to keep on time lines, keep delivery going and keep telling the public about this plan because it will be received positively.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is always good to get a positive response.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Again, I thank Senator Boyhan for raising this important question today and for the opportunity to give him an update. We all desire the same thing, to provide a world-class service in Ireland. In south Dublin, the building is at phase 1 and on track for delivery in August. Funding has been approved for the surgical hub in north Dublin in Swords and construction has commenced. Recruitment will commence in due course. We expect that the hubs in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford will be operational in 2025 and early 2026. They are proceeding at pace. The Dublin hubs will be open soon.

The Minister has asked for the delivery of surgical hubs to be expedited. I am sure that everything is being done to put them in place as soon as possible. We will welcome Members' support. There are clear benefits from these new world-class surgical hubs. I assure the Senator that this Government remains committed to ensure that the best quality elective care is available to everyone in Ireland through the delivery of these world-class surgical hubs.