A charity providing palliative care for terminally ill patients throughout Cork city and county hopes to be able to open a €52 million facility by 2010, after recently receiving planning permission for the project from Cork County Council.
Curraheen Hospital Ltd is a subsidiary of St Patrick's Hospital Ltd, where, since 1870, the Sisters of Charity have provided care for terminally ill patients at the Marymount Hospice on Wellington Road on the northside of Cork city.
But now Curraheen Hospital Ltd has been granted planning permission by Cork County Council for a 15,000 square metre hospital and hospice at a 13-acre site at Ballinaspig More, Waterfall Road on the southwestern fringe of Cork city.
The new two- and three-storey building will include some 75 hospital beds and 44 hospice beds, compared to the existing facility which has 64 hospital beds and 24 hospice beds.
St Patrick's Hospital chief executive Kevin O'Dwyer said building is expected to begin next October and will take 18 months. Fitting out the building will take another six months, enabling the charity to open the new facility in 2010.
"It's been a long process but we are absolutely delighted with the county council's decision," said Mr O'Dwyer.
The new centre, which is designed by Scott Tallon Walker Architects in association with Jane Darbyshire and David Kendall Ltd, British specialists in hospice design, will also include a pharmacy, mortuary, chaplaincy, family support centre and 200 car-park spaces.
Funding for the €52 million project comes from a variety of sources, including a €10 million donation from Atlantic Philanthropies, the charity set up by Irish-American billionaire Charles Feeney, which has sought to assist projects for older people in Ireland.
The Government is also assisting with grant aid of €16 million, with the balance being raised by fund-raising and the sale of the Cork charity's five-acre site on Wellington Road, incorporating St Patrick's Hospital and Marymount Hospice.