The construction of a new surgical hub has commenced at UHW.
The facility when fully commissioned will allow elective scheduled day care surgeries to be completed. UHW Southeast elective surgery waiting lists have been among the longest waiting in the country recently.
Over 48,000 patients are on waiting lists at University Hospital Waterford.
The hub will be located at the former Glanbia site adjacent to the hospital grounds.
Independent TD Matt Shanahan spoke to WLR News saying the building is similar to previous projects at the hospital.
"This hub will deliver what we would call low complexity, high volume cases. Things such as humps and bumps, hernias, biopsies, incisions, things that people need to have looked at, but they often are going to require access to a day bed. This will do is it will filter workflows within the hospital overall.
"This will increase the capacity of the hospital and it will allow the system now to attack these long-term waiting lists. Many people may be waiting for an appointment that's maybe a year out, so hopefully these are the people that will be targeted once this facility is operational", he concluded.
The Waterford hub is intended to act as a regional hub for the Southeast and will be unaffected by pandemics, unscheduled care, or the general day-to-day running of University Hospital Waterford.
