Tender to issue for hospital extension before year end

Contracts have been signed for enabling works to deliver a major new three-storey extension to Cavan General Hospital.

It places the project, which includes a new Emergency Department (ED), Endoscopy Unit (EU) and 16-bed ward, on course to proceed to full tender by the end of 2023, The Anglo-Celt can reveal.

Documents submitted to council planners last year described the current Emergency and Endoscopy departments as “undersized”, while the Endoscopy Unit was dubbed “subpar” in standard.

It was further considered the location of the ED “poor” in terms of access for patients and ambulances, leading to “traffic congestion” on site.

Details of the 5,236 square metre extension, by way of Part 8 planning, were validated by the council’s planning section in March 2022.

“Following a procurement process, a contractor has recently been appointed for the enabling works contract at Cavan General Hospital,” a spokesperson for the HSE informed this week.

Enabling works involve site preparation works that will take place prior to the main construction contract going ahead.

The spokesperson added that the tender documents for the main extension to the hospital are still “currently being prepared”, and it is proposed that these will “proceed to tender” by the end 2023 “subject to relevant approvals”.

The three-storey project, once completed, is to be located to the east of the existing Lisdarn Unit.

The ED will be located at lower ground floor level; while the EU will be linked to the main hospital building by a corridor at ground floor level. The new proposed 16-bed inpatient ward, meanwhile, will be located at first floor level.

The plans further provide for a suite of photovoltaic solar panels to be located on the roof of the existing hospital, and the provision of a carpark adjacent to the extension comprising 44 car spaces, five motorbike spaces and a bicycle bay.

There are also plans for a separate larger carpark, comprising 150 spaces, on the internal access road to the east of the extension.

Cavan General Hospital was opened in the late 1980s, but in recent years the service it provides has come severe pressure, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.