Planning for scaled-down Cork medical clinic granted

A major new multimillion euro private medical clinic for Cork has been granted planning permission after the developers scaled back earlier plans.

The state-of-the-art €110 million Cork Medical Clinic is being developed by Sheehan Medical Corporation on a 60-acre site at Bishopstown, west of the city.

Permission has been granted by Cork County Council for the construction of a private hospital over four floors to include two 40-bed wards, 28 consulting suites, operating facilities and an urgent care facility. The development, which was designed by W S Atkins, will also include 462 parking spaces in a multi-storey structure as well as staff and administration areas.

The developers were forced to scale back their plans for the project when they were refused permission in September 2006 for a six-storey hospital with three 30-bed wards.

While Sheehan Medical claimed the prestigious Blackrock Clinic in Dublin, the Galway Clinic and the Hermitage Clinic in Liffey Valley as their past projects, founder of the Blackrock Clinic Ltd, James Sheehan, said this is "totally untrue".

"This development in Cork is nothing to do with me or Blackrock Clinic Ltd. My brother and his children are involved in the project as a totally separate entity to Blackrock. It's a private venture by the American branch of the Sheehan family," he stressed.

Mr Sheehan's brother, Joseph, is an orthopaedic surgeon who has lived most of his life in Chicago. He is a shareholder in the Blackrock and Galway clinics, but according to James Sheehan, had no involvement in the development of those facilities.