100-bedroom expansion plan for Galway Clinic

The owners of Galway Clinic are planning to start work in 2019 on a major expansion of the private hospital, which includes an entirely new wing with almost 100 new bedrooms and a new intensive care unit.

Permission was granted in 2012 for the five-storey wing, but was not built due to the collapse of the country’s economy, and fall-off in people taking out private health insurance.

The plans include in-patient accommodation for 79 people. There will be three wards on the first, second and third floors, each with 21 new single bedrooms.

There will also be a new intensive care unit at ground floor level, with 16 bedrooms, as well as three endoscopy rooms.

Planning permissions last for a period of five years, and the current one is due to expire in mid-October.

The Clinic’s owners have applied for a five-year extension of duration on the permission, indicating that work will begin in December 2019 and be completed by the end of 2021.

“It has not been possible for Galway Clinic to undertake the construction of the new accommodation wing within the timeframe of the permission, on account of economic and commercial considerations which have impacted on the proposed development in a number of different ways.

“The severity and protracted duration of the recent financial crisis and consequent economic effects for this country have impacted significantly on the provision and delivery of healthcare services across all sectors, including both public and private services.

“The substantial fall-off in the number of people maintaining private healthcare insurance over this period has presented a particularly challenging environment in which non-publicly funded hospitals, such as Galway Clinic, have had to operate.

“A consequence of the changing healthcare environment over the last number of years, is that the most pressing demand which Galway Clinic now has for additional services is the provision of expanded emergency care facilities and diagnostic/treatment facilities.

“This has now taken priority over the provision of additional bedroom accommodation and, as a result, planning permission was sought and obtained in August 2016 for a new A&E, diagnostic and treatment facilities in a two/three storey extension. The detailed design of this extension is currently in progress and it is hoped to proceed to tender and commence construction, before the end of 2017.

“Following completion of the new A&E, diagnostic and treatment facilities, the Clinic would then hope to proceed with construction of the new accommodation wing, the demand for which will have increased further as a result of the additional emergency care and diagnostic services, by then in operation,” the application reads.

A decision is due from the City Council at the end of May.