HSE 'made every effort' to expedite the delivery of Cork surgical hub

The HSE says it has “made every effort to expedite the delivery” of CUH’s planned surgical hub, the opening date for which has been pushed from 2024 to mid-2026.

It comes after a HSE communication on Tuesday to Cork North-Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said that the “indicative operational date” for the hub is Q2 2026.

“At the outset, there was an ambitious timeframe of 18 months to design and construct HSE surgical hubs in six identified locations,” a HSE spokesperson told The Echo.

“Since December 2022, the HSE has been tasked with identifying suitable locations and sites for development, along with the detailed specifications and planning required to inform the process.”

In relation to the Cork hub, they said that enabling works commenced at CUH in Q4 2023. 

They were completed in Q2 2024, they said, explaining that having secured planning permission for all hubs following a public procurement tender process, the contractor was appointed in Q4 2024 to commence construction works including some additional works to clear the selected site in Cork to accelerate works.

“The indicative construction programme takes account of the planning conditions and the time required to construct these facilities and is in the order of 18 months to construct,” the spokesperson said. 

“Following construction, a commissioning period of eight to 12 weeks to equip and prepare each facility for operational use will then be required.

“The HSE has made every effort to expedite the delivery of the HSE surgical hubs using a programmatic approach and standard design principles, modern methods of construction where possible, tendering for combined design and build contractors, seeking planning permission in parallel to the tendering process, and adopting the principle of design once build three times for the Cork, Limerick, and Waterford hubs, making it more attractive to the market.

“The extended timeframe reflects the significant design work to agree all clinical flows and adequacies, the work undertaken to engage with the local authorities and to prepare planning permission applications that successfully achieved planning permission; the set minimum periods for a compliant public procurement process and the ability of the selected contractor to mobilise their teams and supply chains and ultimately construct these complex buildings.”