From workhouse to state-of-the-art facility

Naas General Hospital was built in the 1840s as a workhouse with accommodation for approximately 550 people. The original contract for the building and fitting out of the workhouse was estimated at £6,500. However, the final cost, which included the construction of a perimeter wall, entrance gates and stables, amounted to £8,956.12s.10d. The contract to construct a boardroom and clerk’s office was given in 1848 and cost £497. This is the two-storey building at the right-hand side of the old main entrance to the hospital.

The population of the workhouse rose to over 1,300 immediately after the famine.

In 1922, Naas Workhouse became Naas County Hospital. St John of God Sisters provided the nursing support and are still associated with the hospital today.

The hospital was under the responsibility of the Eastern Health Board from 1970 to 2000 when the South Western Area Health Board took responsibility. In 2005 Naas General Hospital became part of the Health Service Executive/Mid Leinster region.

As a person-centred organisation, the HSE works with service users, communities and other service providers to deliver, evaluate and develop services.

In 1981 the Department of Health took the decision to develop Naas as a general hospital and in 1983 a Project Team was formed to draw up a detailed planning brief for a new hospital on the site.

The first phase of this development, a 30-bed acute Psychiatry Unit, opened in 1991.  During the early and mid-1990s the planning brief was reviewed and other areas were recommended for development. 

Phase 2 included: Inpatient Ward Accommodation, ICU, Coronary Care Unit, A&E,  OPD, Operating Department, Radiology, Day Hospital, Pathology, Main Concourse, Administration, Library and Pharmacy.  

Phase 3 of the development includes new facilities for Pathology, Mortuary/Post Mortem, HSSD, Maintenance, Catering (planning permission received), Physical Medicine and Administration. 

These developments make Naas General Hospital a state-of-the-art facility to meet the highest modern-day standards.