Call a halt to expansion of crammed UHG site, HSE urged

A City Councillor has cried stop and urged the Health Service Executive West to rethink its expansion policy at University Hospital Galway.

 The Labour Party’s Nuala Nolan has queried why the HSE are pushing ahead with plans for several new units and facilities to be built at the Newcastle site when it is already overcrowded and difficult to access.

Cllr Nolan has urged the decision makers within the HSE to instead consider building on the acres of free land available at Merlin Park Hospital on the east side of the city.

She said there is far more free space available at Merlin Park, the access to it is better and that that site should become the West of Ireland’s hospital ‘centre of excellence’.

“We are told the HSE is going to build a car park and helicopter pad, a cystic fibrosis unit and a state-of-the-art mental health unit all beside the paediatric unit at UHG. Given the amount of space in this area is this not a bit much? The place is like a rabbit warren to get around at present. The HSE owns acres and acres of land at Merlin Park. Why don’t they build one proper hospital at Merlin Park?

“I would say given the rate they are moving various services out of Merlin Park to so called ‘primary care facilities’ that the HSE has something else up their sleeves. Ask any Galway person and they will say that Merlin Park is the place to build a proper centre of excellence; not keep shoving various units in to Newcastle which is already crowded and must cost a fortune in the duplication of infrastructure like electricity, air condition and ancillaries. Then you have to have so many extra reception areas for each building – it’s such a waste of money. It’s time to call a halt.”

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel.