Cystic Fibrosis Ireland Seeks Start and Completion Date for 20 Room In Patient Unit in Beaumont Hospital, following welcome confirmation of €2.5 million from HSE for 2021 

Cystic Fibrosis Ireland warmly welcomes the news that the HSE has allocated €2.5 million towards the building of the long awaited 20-room in-patient ward in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. CFI has received confirmation that this funding will be provided as part of the HSE Capital Plan for 2021 

This news is very welcome and CFI is seeking a meeting with Beaumont Hospital management in early September to determine a start and completion date.

The ambition is to build a very high specification 20 room in-patient building for adults with CF in Beaumont Hospital. A present there are only 6 rooms of outmoded/inadequate standard.  This ambition is an important one, not just for those in North Dublin but also for adults with CF in North Leinster and Ulster areas whose main specialised centre is Beaumont Hospital. There are over 160 adults with CF attending Beaumont Hospital. The number of patients with CF attending Beaumont is set to increase in forthcomimng years because of longer projected survival ages arising from a combination of access to innovative medications (CFTR Modulators); improved CF facilities and the impact of the lung transplant programme in Ireland.  

CFI has worked in partnership on this project for many years with local charity CF Hopesource Foundation and we have committed to raise €1m on top of the overall costs, estimated at around €12m. Commitments to build this unit were included in the Programme for Government (2016) and more recently re-stated in the HSE Service Plan, 2021 and the HSE Capital Plan 2021. CFI also acknowledges the significant conribution of the Eastern Branch towards this project, including through the annual Head2head walks. The next Head2Head walk is on Sunday, September 5th 2021, click here for details on the event. 

Consultation  
A high level steering group to oversee the project was established bu Beaumont Hospital in 2018 and includes representatives from CFI and CF Hopesource; hospital management; clinicians and the design team. In 2020 prestgious architectual firm, Scott, Tallon and Walker were appointed to draw up detailed plans and in August 2020 a detailed consultative process was undertaken by CFI and CF Hopesource with those attending Beaumont, click here to view this article. 

This consultation considered key issues such as exercise equipment; facilities for studying while in hospital; access to broadband; hepa filtration and other key design and safety considerations.  The results of this survey were discussed with the Hospital management/architects and much was subsequently incorporated into the final plans. As with all major building developments, COVID-19 had a major impact on the pace of this project. The recent resumption of major building work in Ireland and the commitment of €2.5 million gives us renewed hope that the building phase of this project will commence soon. 

CFI will keep you updated as always.