Minister for Health announces Government response to HIQA advice concerning the design and delivery of urgent and emergency healthcare services in the HSE Mid West Region
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 16 December 2025
- Last updated on: 16 December 2025
The Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, today received Government approval to progress with a blend of the proposed HIQA options necessary to respond to the challenges in the Mid West, to inform investment and to give short, medium and long term view to how we plan for healthcare services for the people of the region.
In its report to the Minister, HIQA found that “the key problem is that there are not enough inpatient beds in the Mid West to meet demand” and proposed three options for consideration. The Minister for Health intends to progress all three options contained in the HIQA report, including development of a strategic plan to invest in services.
These options include:
- an expansion of capacity at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) on the Dooradoyle site (Option A).
- an extension of the UHL hospital campus to comprise the existing Dooradoyle site and another site, in proximity to UHL (Option B).
- the development of service and infrastructure capacity in the HSE Mid West (Option C).
The Minister has engaged widely with patients, public representatives and the clinical community in the region since HIQA published their report on 30th September.
The Minister said:
“I want to thank the members of the HSE Patient and Service User Council, public representatives and the clinical community who have engaged with me so fully and constructively in the period since the publication of the HIQA report. I am aware of the deep concern that the people in the Mid West have had for many years about the healthcare available to them and the improvements that have been much needed.
“Since I received the report, I have fully accepted the need to expand acute capacity at UHL and the wider Mid West region. Like everyone else in Ireland, the people of the Mid West region deserve access to high quality and timely acute hospital care when they need it most. The implementation of the HIQA advice, progressing all three options, represents an opportunity to provide quality care across all services in the region so that people of the region can have the confidence they need to know that healthcare services are meeting the current and future needs.
“Along with this, I am taking the opportunity to reiterate my commitment to bed expansion in Ennis, Nenagh and Saint John’s but also to examine in Q1 of 2026 how we deliver better integrated services locally for people in the Mid West to bring care closer to their home, I have already instructed the HSE to commence this work.”
Minister for Older People at the Department of Health, Kieran O’Donnell, said:
“In line with the recommendations of the HIQA report, the Government is fully committed to continuing to deliver the necessary additional bed capacity and support services to cater for the health needs of the people of the Midwest. I am fully aware of the need for additional bed capacity, including community beds, to be provided and I will continue to work with my colleague, Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Government to ensure this is delivered as efficiently and as quickly as possible.”
In terms of progressing Option A, by the end of 2029, current plans to increase capacity at UHL will deliver up to 306 beds. With additional beds planned for other Model 2 Ennis, Nenagh and Saint John’s - Hospitals in the region, this would represent 420 additional beds in the region from 2024 to the end of the Acute Hospital Inpatient Bed Capacity Expansion Plan in 2031. The ESRI modelling used by HIQA projected that by 2040 a range of between 299 (+36%) and 593 (+71%) beds would be required, compared with 2023 capacity levels. The utilisation of these Model 2 hospitals and their impact in the Region and their respective counties can be greatly improved in the decisions to be made from the HIQA report.
To progress Option B, the Minister will mandate the HSE to secure an available appropriate adjacent site - progressed through HSE Governance structures in the usual way - establish a project board and further explore the opportunities for decanting services away from the main Dooradoyle campus. Consideration will also be required for what services can be relocated or decanted to Ennis, Saint John’s and Nenagh to decongest the Dooradoyle site. This is on the basis that there will be an additional Capital funding ask further to the recently agreed NDP to support the full scope of requirements, necessitating a reassessment of priorities, potential reallocations, and any additional exchequer commitments to ensure deliverability without compromising other strategic health infrastructure objectives. Operational delivery will also be dependent on recruitment of necessary workforce to bring this new capacity into service.
To progress Option C, the Minister and her Department will develop a strategic plan for the incremental strategy of organising services and investment in healthcare services in the Mid West. These steps will inform plans for accelerated infrastructure, bed capacity and hospital capacity in the region that will be outlined in a subsequent Memorandum for Government to be brought in 2026.