The Bon Secours hospital in Galway is set for a further €40 million expansion to cater for the increasing volume of patients attending the facility.
The expansion, which will increase bed capacity at the private Renmore hospital to almost 100, is the latest phase of a major development plan on the Galway campus.
The hospital's board of management has lodged an application for permission to construct a three-storey extension at the front of the building, which will accommodate 51 beds, and for the demolition of an existing two-storey block.
The extension will include a new canteen, physiotherapy area, laboratory and new wards on the first and second floors.
General manager of the Bon Secours at Renmore Mr Gerry Burke explained that the extension would allow an increase of inpatient bed numbers from 70 to 100, on top of a further 20 day-case beds.
"We fully opened the first phase of the new development at the hospital in March 2006 and we now require additional inpatient capacity to serve the needs of our additional surgical capacity. The growth in activity over the past year, in particular, has created a need for extra inpatient capacity going forward for both medical and surgical patients," he said.
The first phase of the redevelopment plan involved a single-storey extension which comprised a radiology department, day unit, endoscopy department, four operating theatres, a chapel and a modern entrance foyer. It also included a three-storey consultant's clinic at the rear of the hospital campus, with 21 suites to the south end of the site.
Mr Burke said: "The volume of patients we are seeing is increasing, in line with trends in medicine generally, with more and more procedures being done on a day-case basis. By the end of this year, we have will seen up to 15,000 patients between day-case and inpatients, which is quite a strong increase."
Mr Burke explained that, with access to University College Hospital Galway (UCHG) for non-emergency work becoming more and more difficult, elective work that was previously being done at UCHG is now being carried out at the Bon Secours and the Galway Clinic.
Meanwhile, the city's other private hospital, the Galway Clinic at Doughiska is also planning to expand its bed numbers.
The clinic is seeking permission for a two-storey extension to the three-storey accommodation wing of the hospital and 62 additional parking spaces.
The extension will provide inpatient accommodation, including a cancer institute for 62 persons, comprising two wards on the second and third floors, each with 31 beds.
Galway City Council requested further information in relation to this application in May of this year.
The 101-bed clinic, which was developed by James Sheehan of Blackrock Medical Ltd, first opened in 2004.
