THE REVELATION that a plan to provide additional single rooms for cystic fibrosis patients at Dublin’s St Vincent’s hospital has been delayed again will come as a bitter disappointment to cystic fibrosis patients and their families, the Labour Party said yesterday.
Party spokeswoman on health Jan O'Sullivan said the hold-up was "an unholy mess". She was commenting following a report in yesterday's Irish Timesthat a tender to build the new unit housing the single rooms had still not been awarded to any builder.
This was despite a commitment in 2008 by the HSE and Minister for Health Mary Harney that the unit would be built in 2010.
When the HSE said last year it would not have funds to begin construction of the new block until 2011 at the earliest there was outrage among CF patients. Ms Harney said developers would be asked to tender for the project on the understanding they would not be paid until it was completed.
It had been expected builders would be selected to do the job late last year. However, it has now emerged that the lowest bidder – Michael McNamara & Co of which the developer Bernard McNamara was executive chairman and director until the end of January this year – wasn’t informed by the hospital of its intention to award it the contract until April this year.
The company had difficulty getting financial backing for the project and in the past week the hospital told the firm it was moving on to discuss the construction with the second lowest bidder.
HSE sources said the second-lowest bidder had been given four weeks to prove it had financial backing for the project, once expected to cost up to €40 million, but now expected to be built for more than €20 million.
Fine Gael’s health spokesman Dr James Reilly tried to raise the matter in the Dáil but his questions were ruled out of order.