HSE allocates funds to begin move of maternity hospital to UHL seven years after announcement
The plan is part of the Project Ireland 2040 policy, announced in February 2018. The policy indicated the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin and other standalone maternity hospitals including Limerick will move to share a campus with acute hospitals.
UMHL was built in 1960 and designed for about 3,000 births every year. Now over 65 years later, it sees about 4,500 births annually. In addition to this 'significant capacity challenge', a hospital spokesman said it is also seeing 'the increasing complexity of pregnancy and childbirth' among its patients.
He said the move remains 'a priority' as set out in 2040 plan, but also said there is no set commencement date. Funding of €200,000 was allocated in the recently published HSE Capital Plan under the title of maternity relocation to UHL.
'The relocation is a major capital project which is currently at appraisal stage,' the spokesman said. 'Indicative funding of €200,000 allocated in the 2025 capital plan is to cover professional fees including business case documentation and any other feasibility studies required.'
Timing will be affected by factors including 'progression through the various approval stages and availability of capital funding", he added. Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said in the Dáil that this move is 'considered to be the next maternity co-location project' after the Dublin hospital moves.
The Dublin plan 'is currently subject to a tender process to select the contractor to build that new facility,' she told Labour TD Conor Sheehan last month.
Co-location can help avoid situations where a mother in crisis is transferred by ambulance to hospital while her baby remains at a maternity hospital. It will give mothers with complex needs direct access to specialist teams and emergency care.
In the meantime, as pressures continue on UMHL it is also expanding some services. The HSE capital plan includes further funding for the neo-natal service in UMHL. The first phase is now complete, the hospital said. It includes a new parents' room, breastfeeding centre and clinical support areas.
'Phase two, to upgrade the neonatal intensive care, high dependency, and isolation facilities, is expected to be completed in early May 2025,' the spokesman said. It is expected this will improve care for the infant patients.
He said it will offer 'a more family-centred environment with enhanced space and modern equipment". Other smaller projects also continue at the hospital on Ennis Road.
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