Minister James Browne refutes suggestion plans for Wexford hospital unit are ‘going backwards’

This is what Wexford TD Verona Murphy told the Dáil on Thursday. The assertion has been refuted by Minister of State James Browne.

Eight years since it was first drafted, plans for the major extension to Wexford General Hospital remain at detailed design stage.

Initial plans for a state-of-the-art complex for patients, with one and two-bed wards, to bring the hospital in line with modern European standards – were submitted to the Ireland East Hospital Group in 2015.

The Ireland East Hospital Group confirmed almost two years ago that plans for a new 96-bed ward block at the hospital had gone to design phase.

In April 2021, the hospital group said: “The hospital has received approval for a new ward block and the design process has commenced. Once the process is complete – a start date and projected completion date can be identified.”

Mr Browne said: “A design team was appointed last August for the 96-bed extension and they moved to detailed design before Christmas. The detailed design involves the internal location of bedrooms, the flow of patients in emergencies, location of staff etc.”

Deputy Murphy said she put questions to a HSE official, asking how the Ireland East group had the project at design stage 23 months ago to it being at strategic report stage this week.

“How do we go from it being at a design stage backwards? I asked for clarification only to be told that it’s being considered.”

Mr Browne issued a statement to this publication clarifying the tortuous process towards getting the extension designed. “All public funded buildings, schools, and hospitals go through a number of design stages.

“Preliminary design includes establishing and analysing all site factors and constraints and identifying the location for the project, excluding impractical and unviable options/locations and finding a preferred option,” he said. Mr Browne said a preliminary design stage was carried out by Wexford General Hospital and the HSE. “Out of this process, it was agreed that the extension would be a 96-bed ward block at the chosen location on the site of the hospital. This process was an internal process of the HSE.”

Following the completion of the preliminary design stage, the HSE approved the project, and it was added to the 2022 Capital Plan. “As per letter dated March 8, 2022, from HSE Capital Estates, and following a tender in Q2 2022, a design team was appointed in August 2022.”

The design team engaged an architect, quantity surveyor etc, to carry out detailed design commencing last autumn. “The design of a hospital extension is understandably a very complicated process. It needs to integrate with emergency department diagnostics, operating theatres, consultant treatment rooms, staffing needs, visitors etc. “The detailed design is almost completed, and I am reliably informed that the estimated cost of the project is between €45 and €55 million. This will be the largest investment in Wexford General Hospital since it was built in the early 1990s.”

A Strategic Assessment Report (SAR) is required for all major capital projects. A SAR is now almost completed and will be submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), the junior minister said. “A SAR is generally only done on completion of detailed design. A SAR is a submission by a public body to DPER confirming that the project has been developed to an advanced stage in compliance with the public spending code. A SAR does not indicate a backwards step, quite the opposite, it is the next step in the project after detailed design is completed, and it indicates that the HSE is advancing the project.”

The next stage of the project will be for it to go to planning. Once planning is completed, the project will go to tender, Mr Browne said. “It should’ve been built by now. Under this government it has been moving as quickly as it can.”