A NEW €55 million hospital providing palliative care and services for older people in Cork is expected to be operating by summer 2011, following the start of construction work at the site at the weekend.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, performed the ceremonial turning of the sod at the site of the new St Patrick’s Hospital on a 13-acre site at Ballinaspig More off the Waterfall Road on the south western fringes of Cork city last Friday.
The new hospital is being developed by Curraheen Hospital Ltd, a subsidiary of St Patrick’s Hospital Ltd, where, since 1870, the Sisters of Charity have provided care for terminally ill patients at Marymount Hospice, Wellington Road, on the northside of Cork city.
The new 15,000sq m hospital will replace St Patrick’s Hospital and will include some 75 hospital beds for older people and 44 hospice beds, compared with the existing facility which has 64 hospital beds and 24 hospice beds.
St Patrick’s Hospital chief executive Kevin O’Dwyer said the new hospice would consist entirely of en suite single rooms with overnight stay facilities for relatives while the three elderly care wards would have 17 single room and two four-bedded rooms all with en suite facilities.
“Both services will be accommodated in cheerful and spacious settings which will meet the highest clinical standards for care and infection control as set out by the Health Information and Quality Authority [HIQA],” he said.
Mr O’Dwyer explained that although the existing hospice at Marymount had a comprehensive community service and a day care unit, their growth to date had been somewhat restricted by the limitations of the accommodation currently available at the Wellington Road building.
“The new facility will enable them to reach their full capacity ... it will also house greatly expanded education services which will ensure that the palliative care education needs of the region will be met,” he explained.
Minister Micheál Martin who, as Minister for Health and Children in 2001, set up a project team to oversee the development, confirmed that the Department of Health and Children would contribute about €14 million to the project.
A further €10 million has come in the form of a donation from Atlantic Philanthropies, the charity set up by Irish-American billionaire Charles Feeney, which has sought to assist in projects for older people in Ireland.
The balance of the cost is being raised through the sale of the Cork charity’s five-acre site on Wellington Road, incorporating St Patrick’s Hospital and Marymount Hospice together with ongoing fundraising.
“Fundraising, which has been ongoing since the idea of the new hospice was first mooted, has been remarkably successful, thanks to the astonishing generosity of the people of Cork,” said Mr O’Dwyer.
“The hospital is enormously indebted to them and to its volunteer fundraisers, the Friends of St Patrick’s Hospital and Marymount Hospice.
“The remaining target for local fundraising is €9 million – ie €3 million a year for the next three years,” he added.