PLANNING PERMISSION has been granted for the construction of another co-located private hospital, this time on the grounds of Limerick Regional Hospital.
The €250 million hospital is to be built by the Beacon Medical Group, which says it could be built and have its doors open in early 2011 barring any unforeseen circumstances.
The Beacon Medical Group has already been given planning permission for two co-located private hospitals on the grounds of Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital and Cork University Hospital. However, in both of those cases the decision to grant planning permission has been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
Beacon said yesterday its new hospital in Limerick would have 183 beds and six operating theatres, and it would directly employ 400 people. Construction is ready to commence in September.
Prof Mark Redmond of Beacon said: “We are extremely pleased to have received notification of the decision to grant planning for this proposed hospital, and believe that it will bring significant benefits to the local community.”
The new hospital will be seven storeys high, with a gross floor area of 25,047sq m.
The controversial plan to build co-located hospitals across the State was announced by the Government in July 2005. It said its aim was to free up additional beds for public patients in public hospitals by transferring private patients to the new hospitals.
Beacon said the Limerick hospital “will mirror the case-mix of the public hospital in that all specialities catered for in the public hospital will also be catered for in the co-located hospital – both medical and surgical, with the exception of national specialities”.