17 million Euro boost for cardiac renal unit (Ireland)

A 17 million Euro funding allocation by the Health Service Executive (HSE) which will allow the equipping and phased opening next year of a new 151-bed cardiac renal facility at Cork University Hospital (CUH) has been warmly welcomed by both hospital management and medical staff. CUH general manager, Tony McNamara, told The Irish Times that confirmation of the 17 million Euro funding was particularly welcome given the current economic climate as it would have a major impact on the quality of service to both renal and cardiac patients. "This is a huge achievement in the current economic climate - it will enable us to look at the phased opening of the centre, starting initially with the transfer of renal services which are already located on the CUH campus," according to Mr McNamara. "The new centre will have a total of 35 haemodialysis stations, including 30 for routine dialysis, three for high dependency patients and two for isolation patients - that's up from the current number of 22 and one isolation unit"