A Galway hospital has announced a €30 million expansion plan that it says will create a "significant" number of jobs with the construction of a new radiology block and surgical day hospital by the middle of next year.
Contracts for the project at the Bon Secours Hospital, which will double its surgical capacity, were signed with TBD Building Contractors today. The 66-bed hospital currently admits 10,000 patients a year.
"This expansion will double the surgical capacity of the hospital. It includes a new operating suite of four state-of-the art theatres, new central sterile supplies facility, two new endoscopy rooms, three minor procedure rooms, a 22-patient dedicated day recovery facility and a new radiology department," said Mr Pat Lyons, chief executive of the Bon Secours Health System.
The expansion will also include a separate clinic building, which contains 13 consulting rooms and patient treatment facilities, due for completion at the end of 2004.
Mr Lyons said the project had been planned in such a way as to minimise disruption to patients during the construction period.
The Bon Secours has been providing patient services in Galway since 1954 when it started life as Calvary Hospital. It changed ownership and traded as Galvia Private Hospital from 1986 to 1999, at which point it became part of the Bon Secours Health System. The hospital employs 250 people and this will increase significantly as a result of the current expansion, a statement from the Bon Secours said.
"This expansion of our Galway hospital will serve the needs of our patients in the west into the foreseeable future," Mr Lyons said. "We will be able to treat more patients with more day-care and in-patient beds, better diagnostic facilities and more operating theatres."
Work has already begun to upgrade the Bon Secours Hospital in Glasnevin, Dublin. Almost €26 million is being spent on that project.
The hospital said funding for the two projects is being provided through internal resources and loan funding.