The possibility of placing a prefabricated structure with single rooms for cystic fibrosis patients on the site of Dublin's St Vincent's hospital is currently being discussed with Minister for Health Mary Harney.
Godfrey Fletcher, the chief executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland, said yesterday that he believed if the will was there such a structure with between 15 and 20 single rooms could be on the hospital site within months.
"If necessary we will pay for it," he said.
It would be an interim solution to the current situation where a lack of single rooms at the hospital puts vulnerable CF patients at risk of picking up infections from other patients.
He said the association was unhappy that the current interim solution put forward by HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm would take up to a year to be put in place.
It would involve vacating an existing ward in the hospital and converting it into about 11 single rooms for the use of CF patients.
"There are a lot of angry, desperate and frustrated CF patients and their families and we are not prepared to wait for an interim solution that will take another year," he said.