Department stresses ‘strategic importance’ of controversial UHG helipad

From the Galway City Tribune – A Government department has lobbied Galway City Council to recognise the “strategic importance” of the helicopter landing pad at University Hospital Galway.

The Department of Transport, which encompasses Irish Coast Guard, said the Council should give “due consideration” to the helipad at the hospital while it drafts the future planning blueprint for the city.

In a submission to the local authority’s City Development Plan 2023-29, an unnamed official in the Department of Transport said: “The Department recommends that the development plan is cognisant of the HLS (Helicopter Landing Site) at UHG and recognises its strategic importance in supporting a wide range of stakeholders and recommends that due consideration is taken of any specific HSE recommendation regarding safety and spatial requirements including simultaneous use by more than one emergency aviation service provider.”

The helicopter landing site in Shantalla, at the rear of UHG, was installed as temporary infrastructure on public land borrowed from the local community.

A commitment was given by Saolta – which operates the city’s public hospitals – that the site would be returned to the community within six months, but the “temporary” facility has now been in situ for nine years.

The matter was raised at a recent HSE West Regional Health Forum meeting, by Councillor Martina O’Connor (Green).

Joe Hoare, Assistant National Director for HSE Capital and Estates West, said: “The options in respect of helipad facilities adjacent to University Hospital Galway, both in the immediate future and in the longer term are currently under review.

“The HSE intends to engage with Galway City Council in the coming months and put forward proposals for consideration. An update can be provided in due course.”

The Department of Transport has now intervened and outlined the importance of the facility, which it said is used regularly by its Coast Guard helicopters.

In its submission, the Department said the helicopter landing site is used for inter-hospital transfers from Sligo and Letterkenny, and other helicopter emergency medical services.

It is also used for emergency medical transfers from off-shore islands, an search and rescue missions on inland waterways, hills and mountains in support of Gardaí; emergency medical transfers from coastal and offshore search and rescues, and medical evacuations of vessels at sea; and emergency transfer of patients requiring access to the Hyperbaric Unit at UHG.

The facility is also used by the Air Corps as part of its Emergency Air Ambulance Service.

The submission said that last year the Coast Guard conducted 516 helicopter missions along the West coast, including maritime search and rescue (282), medical transfers from the offshore islands (146), Air Ambulance Service (74) and others.

It said a “significant portion of these missions have involved the direct use” of the UHG site, or incorporated it as an alternate landing site for planning purposes.

The “intensity of use” of the facility was influenced by UHG being a ‘model four hospital’ providing 24/7 acute surgery, acute medicine, and critical care including cardiology services for the west and North West region, from Donegal to Galway. It also has the National Hyperbaric Unit, which treats patients with medical grade oxygen.

In the five-page submission, the Department also draws the City Council’s attention to legislative changes since the last City Development Plan, which need to be incorporated into the new plan.