THE FIRST patients began moving into a new €35 million state-of-the-art Critical Care Unit at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle this week. “The critical care unit is a major step forward in the development of acute hospital services across the Mid West and follows on radical improvements in the provision of emergency care, diagnostics, surgery and medicine,” a HSE spokesperson told the Limerick Post. “The facility meets the highest infection control standards. Strong emphasis has been placed on the segregation of the different users of the building which is very important from an infection control perspective.
The development includes 19 full isolation rooms spread over the first, second and third levels,” the spokesman explained.
The new unit, built by Dublin-based contractors John Sisk, is one of the largest public capital projects in the state. Construction started in August of 2010 and was completed ahead of schedule.
Mid Western Regional Hospitals Group chief executive Ann Doherty described the project as a key element of the development of health services in the Midwest.
“It will provide essential critical and high dependency care for patients and address safety concerns raised by HIQA and other external reviews of acute health care in the region”, she said.
The unit, which links with the existing hospital, consists of a six storey block over two levels of basement car parking. A new 12 bed intensive care unit is located on the first floor along with supporting accommodation. The second floor provides a new 14 bed high-dependency unit while the third floor will provide a new 16 bed coronary care unit.
The fourth floor is home to a cardiac investigations unit along with two cardiac laboratories and a nine bed day ward. The ground floor will be available for later development while the fifth floor will be required to accommodate the building services plant.
