Catering for Galway hospital patients moving to €25 million Knocknacarra site

A cook-chill production kitchen the size of five tennis courts is planned for the former ZeniMax building in Galway West Business Park, and may also cater for patients in Merlin Park and other community healthcare facilities.

Galway Live reported last month that patients at UHG are currently being fed from a deteriorating prefab that the hospital has been renting for 20 years. It is operating over capacity and has a history of rodent infestations and structural issues.

As part of its redevelopment masterplan, hospital management intends to move catering completely offsite, with meals being prepared on a three-day cycle in Knocknacarra before being transported to UHG.

The facilities will include segregated raw preparation rooms with dedicated areas for meat, fish, salads, vegetables, pastries and sandwiches, as well as an allergen preparation zone.

The catering facility will be just one element of the 5,779 square metre hub in Knocknacarra. Laundry services are also set to move away from UHG, occupying a 1,800 square metre area in the new complex.

There will also be general storage and maintenance workshops at the hub, while the public-facing element of the facility will include outpatient and clinical accommodation over around 1,200 square metres.

The transfer of the main stores and laundry facilities at UHG is necessary to make way for the construction of a six-storey ambulatory cancer centre on the hospital campus.

Meanwhile, the removal of the existing prefab kitchen at the rear of the Nurses’ Home will allow that building to be extended and renovated for corporate and clinical administration accommodation.

However, tender documents for the €25 million fitout of the new facility show that it is unlikely to be completed before September 2029, suggesting that patients will continue to be fed from the existing prefab for some time.

A spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive (HSE) said UHG was in the process of redesigning and expanding its campus to provide better patient care and improve waiting times for patients.

“This plan represents the largest ever investment in healthcare infrastructure in this region,” she said.

“The future development of the campus requires a doubling of clinical services on the UHG campus. This will require decanting non-clinical services off the campus to make space for new clinical buildings.

“It will also ensure that support services are adequately sized and scalable to meet future demand,” added the spokeswoman.