Improving healthcare services in Mid-West

The HSE has acquired a new 44-acre greenfield site 2km from University Hospital Limerick at a cost of €14 million, the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has announced. A new hospital campus will now be constructed on the site, reducing pressure on the existing facility at UHL and considerably expanding healthcare services in the Midwest region.

Speaking last Tuesday week, the Minister said that the site - which is located between Ballycummin Avenue and the Patrickswell Road - will grant “a significant opportunity to provide meaningful additional capacity and health services to the people of Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.” She said the next step involves establishing a project board to determine which services should be retained on the UHL site at Dooradoyle, and which can be relocated to Nenagh, St. John’s and Ennis. She would be returning to Government later in the year with a strategic plan for the services of the region, she added.

With a population of over 500,000, the Midwest is home to just one model-4 hospital - the largest type of hospital, which is equipped with a 24-hour emergency department (ED) and a range of other services. UHL has been plagued by overcrowding issues for years. A number of tragic high-profile cases, including the death of 16-year-old Aoife Johnston in December 2022, have underlined the necessity for upgraded services.

Three options

Last September, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) published the findings of an analysis conducted on the delivery of healthcare in the Midwest region, laying out three options designed to alleviate overcrowding and capacity issues at UHL. Option A involved expanding capacity at the existing UHL site; Option B entailed the extension of UHL with another facility in close proximity to the Dooradoyle site; Option C proposed the development of a new model-3 hospital in the Midwest, providing a second Emergency Department (ED) for the region. In December the Government committed to pursuing a blend of all three options.

The HSE insists that progress is being made on each front. It notes that a total of 278 new acute beds have opened across the region since 2020, including 236 at UHL. A new 96-bed bloc was opened there in October 2025. Investment in hospitals in the region has also increased substantially over the past several years, while staffing at UHL has grown by 56 per-cent since 2019. Minister Carroll MacNeill told reporters last week that it was too early to say the extent of the additional jobs or beds that would be created by the development of the new facility in Raheen, nor did she confirm whether the new hospital would house a 24-hour ED.

Various politicians and patient groups have welcomed the purchase. The HSE Mid-West Patient and Service User Council described it as a “significant and positive step forward for the communities of Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary.” It acknowledged the fact that the decision may not be “universally welcomed” but argued that the establishment of a second campus near UHL represents a far more “deliverable and time-efficient” solution in the near to medium term than the alternative provided by Option C (developing a new model-3 hospital at another location in the Mid-West.) Labour TD for North Tipperary Alan Kelly broadly welcomed the announcement, but emphasised that “the Government must make it clear that this project has cross-government support, and that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will very much own the project.” He said he had been fighting against the lack of healthcare services in the Midwest for literally his whole political career and that “we can’t let anything hold us back on delivering this crucial piece of infrastructure.”

Some politicians have also voiced their dissatisfaction with the plan now being pursued. Clare TD Cathal Crowe (FF) has said that the new Limerick hospital will remain over an hour away from 40 per-cent of the population of the county, and described many people in west and north Clare as “bitterly disappointed.” Speaking on Morning Ireland, Deputy Crowe called for “something major” to be done for Clare now.