Former Limerick school to house HSE facility
A NEW HSE facility designed to tackle hospital waiting lists looks set to be built on the grounds of a former Limerick city centre secondary school.
Planning permission is being sought by the health service to build a new elective surgery hub at the old Scoil Carmel at O’Connell Avenue - which has been used as the city’s Covid-19 vaccination centre.
Now it’s anticipated it will provide minor day surgery procedures, and be able to welcome up to 150 patients each day, according to planning documents.
The surgical hub is being built as part of a €100m government response to tackle the long waiting lists in hospitals across the State.
At the end of October, there were more than 30,000 people waiting for treatment through University Hospital Limerick in Dooradoyle.
These hubs are being built in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Waterford and Limerick.
In details supplied to Limerick City and County Council, agents for HSE Estates described the development as “an important piece of healthcare infrastructure which will facilitate an improvement in the level of day surgeries able to take place and reduce waiting times for patients.
“The provision of the surgical hub is an important and urgent healthcare infrastructure that is required to address both the national and local healthcare surgery provision and capacity needs for scheduled day surgeries across the Mid-Western region,” the document added.
According to the application, permission is being sought to demolish the existing structures on site and construct a new structure rising up two and three-storeys.
A new gated vehicle access would also be constructed in O’Connell Avenue.
Scoil Carmel ceased operating as a secondary school in 2016 amid declining student numbers.
From December 2021, it was home to the HSE’s Covid-19 vaccination centre after it moved from Limerick Racecourse in Patrickswell.
It is expected there will be a maximum of 100 staff members serving the site each day.