Two of the State's oldest voluntary hospitals, the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) and South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) in Cork, yesterday announced they are to merge with a view to establishing a €600 million plus hospital on a still-to-be-decided site in the city.
MUH chief executive Pat Madden and SIVUH chief executive Ger O'Callaghan confirmed yesterday that the hospitals had been in talks for the past year regarding a merger and it is hoped to have the new 600-bed hospital operating within five years.
Although both Mr Madden and Mr O'Callaghan said they were open minded as to a possible location for the new hospital, The Irish Times understands that Cork's soon-to-be-developed docklands is among the locations being considered. A docklands site, particularly at the western end of the south docklands, would meet many of the criteria identified by both hospitals for the new hospital in terms of ease of access, parking and public transportation, one informed source said.
Mr O'Callaghan said the preference would be to stay as close to the city centre as possible but that the hospitals were awaiting a HSE report on acute hospital services in Cork which would help inform the decision on the services and the size of the hospital.
MUH chairman Desmond C Murphy told a press conference, announcing the move yesterday, that a new hospital would require 25-45 acres, depending on its number of storeys. He said construction could take three years, and the planning process one.
Both hospitals have set up joint planning committees to report within six months on possible locations with the two hospitals seeking proposals from developers aimed at identifying the most suitable site.
The MUH has 343 beds including 284 inpatient beds and 50 day beds while the SIVUH has 285 beds including 213 inpatient beds and 77 day beds. The two hospitals cater for 200,000 patients a year between inpatients and A&E and the new hospital will cater for similar numbers.
According to Mr Madden, both hospitals have a public private ratio of about 80:20 and it is expected that the new merged hospital will continue this ratio.
Mr Madden said the hospitals would be exploring funding options with various State agencies along with co-funding initiatives with commercial developers. He did not dismiss the idea of a public private partnership type arrangement to build the new hospital.
Mr O'Callaghan said it had still to be decided what would become of the existing hospitals and they could remain within the health service in some capacity. The SIVUH is located on five acres while the MUH is on a 20-acre site which includes the former Irish Distillery property.
The MUH has recently invested €4 million in a new still-to-open A&E but Mr Madden defended the decision to proceed with this project, saying the hospital needed a new A&E to service its patients and it was not a waste of money. He said many of the resources in the new A&E would, if necessary, be transferrable to a new site, while he didn't rule out the possibility that the new hospital might retain a separate A&E facility on the sites of one of the existing hospitals near the city centre.