Merlin Pk Hospital

HardyEustace

Storm 10 wrote: »

Just heard Padraig Connelly on Galway Bay News saying that it is true that Merlin Park Hospital will close .

Jez as if things are not bad enough in the health service.

It must be only bits of it though? There's a brand new building being constructed at the back of the grounds.

Or is that the new Western Alzeimhers building that you see the sign up for on the Dublin road?

I hope it doesn't get sold off. It provides some well needed green space for Doughiska/Roscam residents.

Carolyyn

HardyEustace wrote: »

It must be only bits of it though? There's a brand new building being constructed at the back of the grounds.

Or is that the new Western Alzeimhers building that you see the sign up for on the Dublin road?

I hope it doesn't get sold off. It provides some well needed green space for Doughiska/Roscam residents.

Yes that new building is for Western Alzeimhers, its a lovely design btw.

I live just behind the hospital and it's great to be able to take a short cut for a cycle or walk through the grounds (or in the car when the gates open morning and evening). There's also a lovely little chapel in the grounds. Seems nothing is sacred from govt. cuts, and more cuts

http://www.galwaynews.ie/13839-medics-told-plan-shut-down-merlin-park-hospital
All but geriatrics and dialysis to be closed it seems.

gaeilgegrinds1

It's unit 1 and unit 4, lots of jobs being transferred to UHG though. It's a bummer really as most in that field seemed to speak in the past years/months as though they felt Merlin was not being fully utilised and could be used to alleviate the backlog in UHG even more.

Mr. Presentable

"the HSE is considering proposals to close ...."

Nothing is decided. It is being "considered".

gaeilgegrinds1

Well plans are underway in UHG to accomadate them. That's how I heard about 8. Eight consultants moving over. Fair enough it may not be written in stone but anyone who's in UHG who knew say the writing is on the wall.

Captain Darling

the keen edge wrote: »

Really?

I heard it was planned to go through the erectile dysfunction ward.

The crowd in there arent so hard up i heard.

skelliser

nipplenuts wrote: »

"the HSE is considering proposals to close ...."

Nothing is decided. It is being "considered".

Thats spin for testing the public opinion. If there isnt much public outrage they will go ahead with it.

nerophis

Nicely timed so that Harney doesn't have to get a grilling in the Dail about it. She'll be answering questions from Florida

Xiney

Anyone else getting the feeling they need to get out of this country before they get sick?

Fistycuffs

I really hope that Galway will rise to something other than the typical laid back taking it in our stride attitude.

As far as Im aware one of the units to be closed is the stroke treatment unit. If you have a stroke being treated in a dedicated unit with specialized staff is the difference between life and death for some people and the difference between life long disability and full recovery for many others. As this is the only such unit in the west of Ireland it would be a tragedy if it were to close.

I don't know how UCHG is expected to absorb the extra patients seemlessly. The place is already bursting. Even the car park cannot handle anymore action at this stage.*

It's so depressing that this has been cynically slipped in the day the Dail disappear for the summer holidays . There are lots of questions that need to be answered on this one or we may all suffer the consequences

swe_fi

Xiney wrote: »

Anyone else getting the feeling they need to get out of this country before they get sick?

Of course. I'd be gone home in a flash if i got seriously sick. This is also the general opinion amongst my non-irish friends.

What I think you'll see more and more of is "hospital tourism", well it is already happening. I am genuinely surprised Michael O'Leary hasn't started the division "Ryancare" yet.

Someone said Chernobyl about this place, I thought exactly the same. I was walking through the grounds there when I was living in Doughiska and then someone told me it was a hospital! Shocked!

I also had to go there in a professional capacity like a year ago to look at something and the place is ancient.

mikemac

Ah that was me with the Chernobyl comment, the buildings look like they were built when Ireland was in deep depression, and possibly they were! So run down these days.
With investment it could take the pressure off UCHG, it has a good location and easy access after all

Merlin Park was originally used to treat people with TB when that was the main killer in Ireland.
So this is why it has huge grounds but buildings are so spaced out.

Great place for a walk or jog.
You can go through the forest and look around Merlin Park Castle too.
Though it's all gated and boarded up but worth a look anyway.
It's at the back of Hillside, you can walk through there to get to Castlepark

?Cee?view

Someone mentioned above that 8 consultants are effected by the proposed move.

Be interesting to know what side of town they live on

Mrs OBumble

swe_fi wrote: »

Of course. I'd be gone home in a flash if i got seriously sick. This is also the general opinion amongst my non-irish friends.

+ 1 to that. I've even maintained my health insurance there (even though it's the other side of the world!), because of the likely implications of "excluding pre-existing conditons" for the first five years of any cover here.

That said, I'm not convinced that closing Merlin Park is a bad idea. We (taxpayers) are currently paying for two sets of buildings, cleaning, security etc - and for some staff to spend time travelling between them. Frankly a city this size just doesn't need two hospital campuses, and having to transport patients between the sites for things must be a real barrier to giving them good care.

When I look at the Newcastle site (which goes right back to Seamus Quirke Rd), I see a lot of empty space - yes there are parking issues, but there are ways to fix 'em. I strongly suspect that the bed-shortages there are really staff shortages rather than space shortages.

Of course arguing on this basis means we'd have to talk about services provided (hard) rather than buildings (easy), so I suspect we won't see much about it.

On a related note: is health funding in this country allocated on the basis of population? Is Galway getting reduced funding because our official population is less than the real population - because so many folks put down their home place instead of where they actually live at census time (and so many folks just seem to avoid the census totally)? I've no proof, but a strong hunch that this might be part of problem.

hamlet1

The building under construction at the back of Merlin Park is the new unit for kids with psycholological problems,it is replacing St Annes.The elective Orthopaedic ward will probably close too,so god help anybody on the waiting list for surgery because they are in for an even longer wait.The ground and first floors of the Hospital Block have just been completely renovated and the second floor is almost ready.What a disgraceful waste of money if they close it down.:mad:

tinofapples

Vastly unused plot, all the land up there and building just left to rot and fall down. UCHG hasn't parking for staff never mind visitors.

skelliser

Well you can thank the PD's and Mary Harney for effectivly killing of free health care in this country. Did ye know that here husband is heavily involved in health care think tanks that lobby the gov. on behalf of the private health care industry.
Its no surprise all the private hospitals that sprang up over the last decade around the country and the co-location scheme.
Add to this the mandatory pension scheme coming in 2014 you can effectively say good bye to the public health system and vast swades of the social welfare system.

Watch over the next 2 years how they sell of all the state asissts to their vested interest friends to pay for ruining this country.

Wont be long until ireland can truely call itself the 51st state of america.

JohnCleary

skelliser wrote: »

Dunno about that. Merlin park was originally built as an isolation hospital to house people suffering from tb. Hence why all the units are spaced out, it has/had its own power station and the size of the grounds.

Almot every hospital in the country has their own power station - It's called a big feckin generator! Merlin and UHG definately do, and can run the whole hospital on them

swe_fi wrote: »

I also had to go there in a professional capacity like a year ago to look at something and the place is ancient.

As someone who was a long term patient there, I didn't care about the paint on the walls. What I cared about was how I was treated. I was very happy with how I was treated by all the staff up there (Even the porters are nice, happy people which can make a huge difference to a patient)

tinofapples wrote: »

Vastly unused plot, all the land up there and building just left to rot and fall down. UCHG hasn't parking for staff never mind visitors.

Utter tripe. I (along with others here) used to work up there during the summer. The land is kept to a good standard and is maintained well - I dare you to find any of the grounds up there that's over-grown/wild (Please include. The buildings are hardly rotting and being let to fall down, and trust me i've seen the inside and out of every building up there. They may not look a million dollars from the outside, but what the heck does the outside cosmetics of a building have to do with the recovery and safe being of patients? Your statement is plain stupid, however, i'm always open to correction so if you can take pictures and show us of these rotting lands/buildings i'll happily retract what I said. I have no reason to defend the place only that i'm a past long-term patient who was treated well there

tinofapples

Utter tripe. I (along with others here) used to work up there during the summer. The land is kept to a good standard and is maintained well - I dare you to find any of the grounds up there that's over-grown/wild (Please include. The buildings are hardly rotting and being let to fall down, and trust me i've seen the inside and out of every building up there. They may not look a million dollars from the outside, but what the heck does the outside cosmetics of a building have to do with the recovery and safe being of patients? Your statement is plain stupid, however, i'm always open to correction so if you can take pictures and show us of these rotting lands/buildings i'll happily retract what I said. I have no reason to defend the place only that i'm a past long-term patient who was treated well there

Okay, they're not falling down and the grounds are well kept and I probably shouldn't have said that, my main problem is all the space they have in Merlin to expand buildings/car parks whatever it may be and they are simply turning a blind eye to it in favour of the Newcastle site. I grew up in the area and used to ramble the woods as a youngster. Would have loved to see it developed and used to it's full potential.

HardyEustace

tinofapples wrote: »

I grew up in the area and used to ramble the woods as a youngster. Would have loved to see it developed and used to it's full potential.

Wouldn't development mean the end of the woods?

skelliser

Merlin park needs to be saved. UCHG cannot cope as it is. Closing merlin park would be a disaster.

tinofapples

HardyEustace wrote: »

Wouldn't development mean the end of the woods?

Hardly, there's alot of open space up there as well as the woods and existing buildings.

tinofapples

skelliser wrote: »

Merlin park needs to be saved. UCHG cannot cope as it is. Closing merlin park would be a disaster.

Agreed.

Mrs OBumble

tinofapples wrote: »

...my main problem is all the space they have in Merlin to expand buildings/car parks whatever it may be and they are simply turning a blind eye to it in favour of the Newcastle site. I grew up in the area and used to ramble the woods as a youngster. Would have loved to see it developed and used to it's full potential.

I used to think that it made sense to move all the acute hospital facilities in the city from Newcastle to the Merlin Park site. But then I drew a map and realised that UCHG is the ONLY one that's west of the river: it needs to be retained for disaster management purposes. (Imagine if a big flood took out all the bridges.)

Just now, I took a look at the Newcastle site: there's a LOT of green space there.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=53.276955,-9.065502&spn=0.007018,0.022037&t=h&z=16&msid=105829947892211882597.00048b4a775fa902c2d29

There's also a university across the road that's running a park and ride from Dangan: it doesn't take much lateral thinking to combine these, thereby making the bus-service a lot more sustainable year round. Ambulances and sick people do need to get parking pretty close to the hospital site. Staff and visitors don't, they just need effective systems to get them there.

So I just don't buy the arguments about space.

We need to stop thinking buildings, and start thinking SERVICES.

For example - I'd gladly join any protest against the removal of a dedicated stroke service from Galway city. But there's no way I'll protest about moving it from a hard-to-reach satellite campus to the main acute hospital site where the patients will have ready access to other services too.


Oh - Doughiska residents have sounded pretty strongly opposed to putting a road (proposed "quality bus corridor") through the woods, because of the loss of the recreational amenity. I haven't heard what Merlin Park, Mervue or Ballybane residents think about that topic, but would be surprised if it's different. If they don't want a simple road, I'm sure they wouldn't want big hospital buildings.

snubbleste

That highlighted map includes a community centre and a football playing field that belongs to the city council - a land swap was attempted in the past but failed.
The rest of the green area that belongs to the HSE now contains an orbital road and a car park.

skelliser

There is also a landing pad for helicopters and thus you cannot build further building around that or in its vicinity.

What are you suggesting, Justmary? Im kinda confused. do you want all the health services solely located at the UCHG site.

The facts are the UCHG site is over-run at this stage. Closing merlin park will only multiply the problems faced in UCHG. If anything they should be increasing the use of merlin park.

One of the units in merlin park was recently renovated at a massive cost. I am reliably informed that due to this and others issues the budget for merlin park is already 19million overspend for this year. So it seems the mantra within the HSE is to build/renovate sites and then close or never use them!!

bonzodog2

Is there any good reason they couldn't relocate the helipad to the roof of a building ? Then they could build where it is now.

skelliser

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Is there any good reason they couldn't relocate the helipad to the roof of a building ? Then they could build where it is now.

I doubt it, maybe with smaller helicopters but the air corp use large heavey lift helicopters like the sikorsky and the size and power of the down draft would be to dangerous.

In england hospitals use smaller helicopters but they are not designed for operating at sea, covering large distances and search and rescue.

eagle10

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Is there any good reason they couldn't relocate the helipad to the roof of a building ? Then they could build where it is now.

There is no lift to the top of the hospital only to the fifth floor above that is the lift control rooms/ plant rooms above that is roof