Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising what is an important issue, not least for the south east. I am aware of the related matters that he raised. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health.

The HSE is progressing with plans to develop a 20-bed specialist palliative care inpatient unit as part of a €20 million redevelopment at University Hospital Waterford. The new unit will act as a focal point for the provision of specialist inpatient beds and community and day care services for patients and their families living in the south east. It is being developed in partnership with Waterford Hospice Movement, which has generously undertaken to fund-raise €6 million to cover the unit's capital cost. This commitment is in line with a number of proposed new hospice units at various stages of development across the country where the voluntary hospice groups provide the capital costs or build the units. The HSE is then required to provide the ongoing revenue funding for the operation of the service.

The new palliative care unit will be located on the first two floors of the five-storey development. The ground floor will accommodate 20 single inpatient rooms and ancillary accommodation. The second floor will be used to provide a day care centre, consultation rooms, treatment rooms, a therapy area and a dining area. The University Hospital Waterford project, including the palliative care unit, is included in the HSE's capital plan for 2014.

Enabling works which commenced in October 2013 have recently been completed to the front of the hospital on the proposed unit site. These works included the construction of a new roadway to relocate the access road to the old school of nursing and the RCSI to the eastern end of the campus. The works also involved the relocation of services to the perimeter of the site and the completion of new car parks adjacent to the laboratory. The design team was appointed in the summer of 2014 and it is expected that the planning application for the unit will be lodged in March 2015. Subject to funding approval by the HSE estates office, construction is planned to commence in quarter two in 2016. Construction is expected to be completed in quarter three in 2017 and, following commissioning and equipping, the unit is planned to open in quarter one in 2018.

The palliative care unit at University Hospital Waterford will be staffed by existing resources currently working in palliative care, both in acute and sub-acute services across the south east. Resources will be in place to operate the unit as planned in 2018 and in line with the project plan.

It is the intention of the Government that all dying people will be provided with the type of palliative care service that they need, regardless of their diagnosis, how old they are or whether they die in a hospice, an acute hospital or at home. To achieve this, we will need a combination of generalist and specialist palliative care services to care for people at home, in an acute hospital and a hospice, where required. The specialist palliative care unit in Waterford will, accordingly, play an important part in the palliative care infrastructure of the south east.