Tripling multi-million cost of Laois hospital extension a 'shock' - Flanagan

The cost of extending a Laois community care hospital has rocketed by 300% since it was first planned seven years ago.

The soaring cost is been blamed on the Health Service Executive for not building it quicker, with Laois TD Charlie Flanagan describing it as "ineptitude".

The price to build a 50 bed unit at St Vincent's Community Nursing Unit in Mountmellick has shot up from €11.5 million, estimated in 2018, to €35 million including VAT.

The project was first announced in 2016, when €23.7 million was ringfenced to build the entire three phases with 130 new bedrooms.

The upgrade is necessary to bring the hospital up to patient standards for ensuite rooms instead of large shared wards, as ordered by the health service watchdog, Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).

In the meantime bed capacity has dwindled to less than 60 with those large wards closed off. 

Laois Offaly TD and then Minister Charlie Flanagan had first announced the plan in 2016, after HIQA lifted its ban on admissions.

Now he has slammed the HSE for its "inepitude" in delaying the project and rocketing the cost.

"I am shocked at the cost inflation.  It is entirely unsatisfactory and proves an ineptitude on the part of the HSE to manage building projects. 

"I acknowledge a Covid delay but that doesn't explain a full seven years since the project was announced. I have raised this matter repeatedly with the Minister for Health. 

"Obviously I welcome the work, it's long overdue. This project was an urgent project seven years ago and remains even more urgent today. 

"This was all against the background of Covid and questions over the future of Abbeyleix and Shaen hospitals. This is a complete lack of adequate strategic planning on the part of the HSE," he said. 

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The HSE confirmed the new cost in a statement to the Leinster Express this week.

"The total project cost for the phase 1 project in St Vincent’s Mountmellick is ca. €35m incl VAT".

Enabling works were completed by February 2021. These include a new carpark, underground fire prevention water tank and the removal of mature trees. 

Construction work began last April but it will not be ready until mid 2025, the HSE say, after which it has to be equipped. 

There are two more phases yet to be built to complete a planned 130 bed revamp of the hospital.

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Phase Two will be even bigger, a 60 bed unit including a 10 bed dementia unit.  It will involve the demolition of the single story wing to the right of the hospital which is currently St Anne's dementia ward. The dementia patients may have to move temporarily to the first new wing. 

Lastly, Phase Three will refurbish the first floor of the existing building to provide 20 ensuite single bedrooms.

"The provision of this new build with single en-suite room accommodation will provide much needed modern facility for those in need of residential care," the HSE say.