Planning lodged for new primary care centre in Cork 

A planning application has been lodged for a Cork primary care centre that was promised five years ago and which is now projected to be completed by the end of 2026.

News that Douglas was to get a primary care centre broke in April 2019, when Fianna Fáil councillor Mary Rose Desmond told The Echo that she was “pleased to receive confirmation from Cork Kerry Community Healthcare” that HSE Estates would, in the second quarter of that year, invite expressions of interest to build a centre.

Speaking to The Echo this week, Ms Desmond said the process had been stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic, but she had been working diligently in the interim.

“I’ve been working away with the HSE, keeping the pressure on, but also assisting in any way I can, and, in that time, they’ve gone through that process of identifying a partner-developer and a site, and that site has gone for planning now.

“Short of construction, it’s at the final stage, it’s the final hurdle, and I’m really delighted,” the Cork City South East councillor said.

“Douglas Woolen Mills is the site that has gone successfully through that process with the HSE and that planning application has now been lodged, so I look forward to seeing it go through that process and getting to construction as soon as possible.”

Ms Desmond added that the privately developed primary care centre, which will have the HSE as its main tenant, would be a major benefit to the Douglas community. “The aim of these services is to keep people out of hospital and to stop our over-reliance on hospital care,” Ms Desmond said.

A spokesperson for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare warned that timelines around projects of this scale tend to be dependent on a number of variables.

“For that reason, a timeline of up to 30 months allows for a sensible contingency timeframe and an expected completion date of Q4 2026,” they said.