Major bed boost for local hospital
The number of additional beds, planned as part of a major extension at Cavan General Hospital, is set to be tripled to 58.
Confirmation that a “revised proposal” is currently being assessed by HSE Estates was received by Cavan/Monaghan Fianna Fáil TD, Brendan Smith.
Eighteen new beds were promised under existing capital plans for a three-storey extension at Cavan General, to include a new Emergency Department, Endoscopy Unit and inpatient ward. Planning permission for the development was approved in 2022, and the project is currently at detailed design stage.
However, the latest proposal could see two more floors added, and the number of new beds increase from 18 to 54.
The confirmation was contained in a communcation Deputy Smith received from the HSE after the local deputy tabled a Parliamentary Question to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly in the Dáil.
The letter to Deputy Smith states that a “revised proposal is currently being explored to include a further two floors of in-patient beds, which will increase the number of beds being provided from 18 to 54”.
It adds that enabling works, carried out by Cavan’s Elliott Group, have been completed. Those works entailed developing a new carpark area as well as diverting a “number of services” to clear the site for the planned development.
Tenders for a second enabling contract to address electrical infrastructure to support future campus development have also been advertised.
“These extensive, wide-ranging and very welcome additional facilities at Cavan General mark a massive financial investment in acute hospital care for our area and will be of great benefit to patients and to all staff delivering healthcare in the hospital,” said Deputy Smith. “We are all conscious of the pressures at present in acute hospital care including Cavan General. Minister Stephen Donnelly has been very supportive of developments at Cavan General and other healthcare provision in Cavan/Monaghan and the capital funding provided by his Department is key to the provision of additional new and upgraded health facilities.”
In its planning application the HSE described the current Emergency Department as “undersized” and dubbed the Endoscopy Unit “subpar” in standard.
The location of the existing ED was also considered “poor” in terms of access for patients and ambulances, leading to difficulties with “traffic congestion” on the site.
The new three-storey project will be located to the east of the existing Lisdarn Unit, with a new ED at lower ground floor level and the Endoscopy unit linked to the main hospital building by a corridor at ground floor level.
The relocated and enhanced ED will contain two resuscitation bays, 10 major injury treatment bays, six minor injury treatment bays, as well as three paediatric and three isolation rooms.
The new inpatient ward, under the previous plans at least, was to be located at first floor level.
Cavan General Hospital was opened in the late 1980s but has seen a massive surge in patient numbers over the past decade.
The current ED has come significant under pressure as part of that, with it being placed in a state of “escalation” a number of times due to the sheer volume of patients presenting there.
The COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted shortcomings at the facility.
The HSE is meanwhile currently in the process of tying up a deal to buy the second former Quinn Direct building, now a Liberty Mutual property, at Killygarry, with a view to redeveloping it as a new administration hub and in the longer term establish a new ambulance base just off the N3.
The acquisition also facilitates the wider plan to relocate and centralise administration from Cavan General to faciliciatate the redevelopment of the local acute hospital site.
Progress continues to be made in relation to the provision of a new Oncology Unit at Cavan General, which was included in the HSE’s Capital Plan for 2023. Again, the proposed project is at detailed design and planning stage.