Cork hotel to be transformed into nursing unit for older people

A Cork hotel is to be transformed into a 60-bed community nursing unit.

The hotel building at the Blarney Golf Resort was handed over to the HSE this week and plans are progressing to refurbish the facility into a HIQA compliant nursing unit to provide additional bed accommodation for older people in Cork City.

Michael Fitzgerald, Chief Officer of Cork Kerry Community Healthcare said the move will allow them to provide high-quality residential care for older people at the facility.

“Although our aim is to support people to live in their own homes for as long as possible, there is a recognised shortage of public nursing home beds in the Cork city area.

"This development will go some way to addressing that shortage, and will allow us to provide high quality residential care for older people who need that care. We look forward to opening this new community nursing unit for the people of Cork as soon as possible."

It is understood that significant works will be required to transform the former hotel into a community nursing unit, and while a spokesperson said they will be moving ahead with the project as quickly as possible, they said it would be premature to give details of timelines at this point.

Separately, the HSE is progressing works in the Rochestown area to create a 35-bed community nursing unit. 

It intends to refurbish a unit at Monfield Nursing Home where the new beds will be delivered.

“The impact of Covid has put a focus on enabling people to live safely at home through provision of additional home supports and on minimising the referral of older people to long term care; the impact of population growth and increased longevity results in a need to increase our residential care bed capacity for older people and these proposed projects aim to address this need for Cork,” a HSE spokesperson said.