Minister vows MRI scanner at St Luke’s will be delivered, but can’t confirm when

ST Luke’s General Hospital will get the long-awaited MRI scanner it badly needs, but Health Minister Simon Harris is unable to say if it will be built before the end of this year as previously promised.

Minister Harris today vowed that the vital project – for which €250,000 has already been raised from local fundraising – would be included in the 2019 Health Service Executive (HSE) Capital Plan.

But he could not give a clear timeframe for when the project would be delivered.

The minister told KCLR’s Eimear Ni Bhraonáin: “It is a cause for frustration for all of us that preparing for the tender has taken a little longer, but I wanted to clear this up this morning that we will go to tender in the next couple of weeks.

“My understanding is that tender documentation is very nearly ready to go, it will be ready to go in the next couple of weeks and the tender will then go out this summer.”

When pressed on a date for the project, Minister Harris was unable to give an exact timeframe. He did, however, say he would be happy to return on the show next month to give a fuller update.

Earlier this month, KilkennyNow.ie revealed the MRI scanner for St Luke’s was still not included in the HSE’s 2019 Capital Plan.

In a response to a parliamentary question from Kilkenny TD John McGuinness, The HSE said the “design team are currently developing the pre-tender cost” for the MRI scanner project.

Minister of State and local TD John Paul Phelan previously stated he had received assurances from HSE management that the MRI scanner project would be delivered before the end of this year.