News

Progress Diary for Curraheen Hospital
Week 1 – 11th to 17th May 2009
By Charlie Hickey, Project Manager.

Works commenced on the morning Monday the 11th May. BAM Limited has been awarded the contract for the main building works.

Preliminary works entailed environmental protection to the river Two-Pot and preservation identified trees as well as an exclusion zone to the existing ringfort for archaeological reasons. Earth moving equipment started the stripping and storing of topsoil. Access routes were opened up to allow heavy plant clear the site. Excavations for the site services and building foundations commenced.

Surveyors set out the building footprint and identified the locations of existing services.
The weather in the first three days was ideal with sun and light winds keeping the spoils dry, but deteriorated towards the end of the week.
Progress is as expected.

New Hospice and Hospital Launch

Mr. Micheál Martin, T.D. Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment will launch the new Hospital and Hospice in the Vertigo Room, County Hall on Friday 1st February 2008 at 2 p.m. The other speakers at the launch will be Mr. Dick Haslam, Chairperson of the Hospital’s Board of Directors, Mr. Pat Healy, Assistant National Director, HSE South (to be confirmed), Mr. Colin McCrea, the Atlantic Philanthropies, and Ms. Regina Donnelly, Chairperson of the Friends of St. Patrick’s. The purpose of the launch is to mark the granting of full planning permission for the project, and to inform the public about the design features, enhanced services, and project programme. It will also provide an opportunity to thank the people of Cork for their tremendous support in the past, and to ask them to continue that support for another three years. Attendance is by invitation only.

	enlarge (OPENS IN NEW WINDOW)

	enlarge (OPENS IN NEW WINDOW)

	enlarge (OPENS IN NEW WINDOW)

New Hospice and Hospital

Plans by St. Patrick’s Hospital (Cork) Ltd. (which incorporates St. Patrick’s Hospital and Marymount Hospice), to relocate all of its services from its current site at Wellington Road, Cork to a green field site at Ballinaspig More, Waterfall Road, Cork are progressing well. A key stage in the project was reached with the appointment in the summer of 2006 of the Design Team for the project. The team is:

• Architects: Scott Tallon Walker Architects Ltd. in association with Jane Darbyshire & David Kendall Ltd. (UK specialists in hospice design).
• Civil & Structural Engineers: Arup Consulting Engineers.
• Mechanical & Electrical Engineers: Varming VMRA Consulting Engineers.
• Quantity Surveyors: O’Reilly Hyland Tierney & Associates.

The Design Team, working with the Project Team established by the Hospital to oversee the project and with the User Groups from within the Hospital, have progressed the design to the stage where an application for full planning permission was lodged with Cork County Council on the 18th June 2007. With this landmark event comes a degree of certainty on the design of the building, the cost of the project, and the programme.

Assuming a positive outcome to the planning process, the next stage will be the detailed design of the building. This is expected to take eight months, which will allow the Hospital to proceed with the recruitment of a contractor, with a view to construction commencing on the 1st October 2008. With a construction period of 18 months and a commissioning period of 3 months, the new facilities are expected to become operational during the Summer of 2010.

The full cost of the project is estimated at between €52m and €55m. The Health Service Executive is committed to providing €17.5m, and the Atlantic Philanthropies, a Bermuda based philanthropic organization established by Mr. Chuck Feeney, are contributing a further €10m. The balance of the funding will come from the proceeds of the sale of the Wellington Road property, and local fundraising.

The new project, which will be built by Curraheen Hospital Ltd. a wholly-owned subsidiary of St. Patrick’s Hospital (Cork) Ltd. will include a 44-bed hospice providing a comprehensive specialist palliative care programme, (to include an in-patient unit, a base for community services, a day care unit and an education centre) and a 75-bed hospital for the care of older people providing continuing and respite care services. This facility will replace the existing 24 beds in Marymount Hospice and the 64 beds at St. Patrick’s Hospital.

Launch of International Expert Advisory Group Report on Palliative Care

The Atlantic Philanthropies recently supported St. Patrick’s Hospital in undertaking research to establish that their proposals for the new specialist palliative care inpatient unit were in line with current international best practice. A team of leading international experts in various aspects of palliative care service delivery had input into the project. The report provides recommendations in the areas of:

• Structure and Organisation of Palliative Care Services
• General Design and Planning Considerations
• Education and Research
• Benchmarks for Best Practice

The launch of the International Expert Advisory Group Report on Palliative Care took place on March 9th, 2006. The launch, by Professor Eduardo Bruera (Department of Palliative Care & Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center), who was chairman of the Advisory Group, was very well attended by healthcare professionals and administrators.

The report should be read in conjunction with the Report of the National Advisory Committee on Palliative Care, and the Design Guidelines for Specialist Palliative Care Settings. The report is available on this website along with links to the other two publications. It is hoped that the report will inform the future planning, development and operation of specialist palliative care units and services both nationally and internationally.

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