Tullamore hospital to fully open by December 10

The newest state-of-the-art hospital in the country at Tullamore will officially open on December 10 after ten years of planning, construction and fitting out. Taoiseach Brian Cowen said it was his pleasure to be Taoiseach at the time of the move from the old hospital to the new one. However, some people have expressed concern that there will be no extra services at the new hospital and that it will not be operating at full capacity. There will be no additional staff or extra funding of services. 'I think we can all take pride in having such a top class facility here in Tullamore and I wish the very best to all staff and patients who are now passing through its front doors. I have no doubt but that this will be a tremendous health resource for current and many generations to come,' said Mr Cowen. Independent Facilitator, John O"Dowd, along with HSE management and INO union representatives spent many hours thrashing out a working agreement which will finally see the last remaining services move to the new hospital building. Fine Gael Deputy Olwyn Enright has called on the Health Service Executive to place more emphasis on opening the renal unit to its full capacity. It is also not known what the HSE intend to do with the old hospital when it is fully vacated.