Planners approve new Cystic Fibrosis unit at University Hospital Galway

City planners have given the go-ahead for a new outpatient unit for children with Cystic Fibrosis on the grounds of University Hospital Galway.

The unit will provide isolated daycare facilities, including four examination rooms, a treatment room, two offices and a gym for physiotherapy.

‘Cystic Fibrosis Galway Hospital Project’ has been granted planning permission for the unit, which will be attached to the existing paediatric unit.

In their ruling, planners said: “As the use of the building proposed as an outpatient clinic is an existing use carried out within the hospital within existing rooms and staff and the building is necessary in order to minimise cross-infections of patients, it is considered that there would be no additional carparking generated by the development.”

The purpose-built, single-storey CF centre will be funded by charitable donation, and will have a separate entrance to the paediatric unit in order to ensure minimal cross-infection.

“The unit is needed to provide isolated daycare facilities where patients can be assessed and treated without risk of cross-contamination (currently the CF patients attend general paediatric clinics with infection risk and cross-contamination risk),” the application reads.

In a needs assessment for the unit, Dr Mary Herzig, Consultant General and Respiratory Paediatrician said it is proposed to build a module unit with four en suite examination rooms, a main treatment room for procedures, office space for medical nursing staff, and a gym for physiotherapy, which is the “mainstay of CF care”.

Cystic Fibrosis is Ireland’s most common life-threatening genetically inherited disease.