Purpose-built Cork nursing home to ‘hopefully’ open within months

A new, dedicated community nursing home in Cork city, offering over 100 beds — which was initially promised for the end of 2025 — will “definitely” be open by Christmas 2026, a spokesperson for the HSE has said, and “hopefully” by July.

Last year, the HSE pledged that a purpose-built, 105-bed facility for older people would be in use by year’s end at St Finbarr’s Hospital on Douglas Rd.

In May 2025, a Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report into the HSE-managed facility for older people identified a number of issues.

St Finbarr’s was built in the late 19th century, and is currently officially registered for 73 residents, with an additional 15 short-stay beds which do not come under Hiqa’s remit.

People living there are accommodated in multi-occupancy bedrooms in five units situated in what Hiqa described as “large institutional-type buildings” spread across extensive grounds.

The premises was given a non-compliant score as it was “unsuitable for the number and needs of residents living there”, a finding repeated from earlier inspections.

In one unit, there were three toilets and one shower for 13 residents.

ONE TOILET

In another, nine residents had access to one shower and one toilet.

The report found “poor premises [with a] lack of designated dining and separate day room accommodation, multi-occupancy bedrooms with inadequate storage space for many residents [were] normalised and seen as ‘optimal’ facilities”.

An application to increase bed occupancy from 73 to 78 residents had subsequently been withdrawn by the HSE, which said a new 105-bed community nursing unit had been built, and would be occupied in the fourth quarter of 2025.

This new facility would offer single-room accommodation, with adequate storage space, adequate showering, toilet, communal spaces, dining rooms, and access to enclosed gardens, for residents, the HSE promised.

Asked for an update, a HSE South West spokesperson told The Echo that handover of the new community nursing unit at St Finbarr’s was now scheduled to occur during the first quarter of this year, but could only take place “once all compliance requirements are fulfilled”.

They added that residents would move into the new 105-bed unit “on a phased basis as soon as logistically possible”.

Asked for a specific date, the HSE spokesperson said they could not commit to a definite timeframe, but believed the unit would “definitely” be fully occupied by the end of 2026, and would “hopefully” be open within the first half of the year.