HSE APPROVAL FOR KIDNEY DIALYSIS UNIT AT SINNOTTSTOWN LANE

The HSE Directorate has approved the awarding of a new contract to the medical company B Braun Avitum Ltd to build a kidney dialysis unit in Sinnottstown Lane in Wexford after Fresenius Medical Care Ireland Ltd, the company which received the original contract was refused planning permission to open a unit on Whitemill Industrial Estate. However, the contract cannot be formally awarded to B. Braun until a 14-day ‘cooling off ’ period has elapsed and that deadline will be reached at the end of this week. Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Deputy Paul Kehoe TD has been informed by the HSE General Manager at University Hospital Waterford, Richard Dooley that the health executive recently completed its evaluation of the proposals received from an renewed tender process which began while the Fresenius plan for the former Acorn Fashions building was under appeal to An Bord Pleanála. Minister Kehoe had tabled a parliamentary question in the Dail asking the Minister for Health Deputy Simon Harris for an update on the project and requesting that he outline when exactly the process will be completed and contracts awarded. Mr. Dooley replied directly to the Wexford Fine Gael deputy by letter last week telling him that following the completion of the alternative tender process, the Procurement Evaluation Group had submitted a ‘contract approval request’ to the HSE Directorate. ‘ The contract was approved by the HSE Directorate recently at its March meeting following which the successful tenderer (B Braun) was written on on Thursday, March 23. After the required ‘standstill’ period of 14 days has elapsed the successul tenderer will be formally awarded a contract.’ Mr. Dooley added: ‘On the assumption that all goes to plan, and bearing in mind the extensive preparatory work to be undertaken by the successful tenderer, it is expected that the Satellite Dialysis Unit in Wexford will be operational in the first quarter of 2018.’ It is expected that once the 14-day waiting period is over, the HSE will make an official public announcement about the project. In mid-January An Bord Pleanála rejected a planning appeal from Fresenius and upheld a decision made by Wexford County Council in August 2016 not to grant planning permission for the Acorn Fashions building as it would restrict the future use of surrounding units and sites. Around the same time, the County Council granted planning permission to B Braun Ltd to build a 757 sq. m. single-storey dialysis unit in a contemporary design at Sinottstown Lane , adjacent to Drinagh Retail Park. The unit will have 14 treatement bays catering for 35 to 40 patients cared for by eight medical staff. The plan includes 19 car parking spaces to the front and side of the building and an ambulance drop-off area. The long-awaited Wexford renal centre will be under the clinical governance of the dialysis unit in University Hospital Waterford.