No dates for opening of new Cork nursing homes

It could be December before the new St Finbarr’s nursing home unit in Cork city takes in residents, the HSE has conceded.

While the aim is to have St Finbarr’s and another new nursing home in Midleton handed over by developers in March, it is possible that it will take until the end of the year for the city facility to actually take people in, the health service said.

It comes as a new nursing home in Killarney was finally handed to the HSE by builders, two years after it was first mooted.

These three nursing homes are part of a €250m seven-unit public-private partnership (PPP) between venture company Equisisk (John Sisk & Sons with Equitix).

The Kerry facility was expected to be complete in 2024, but although all seven are built, Killarney is now only the third handed over to the HSE.

The HSE has now said the four other units at Midleton and St Finbarr’s, as well as Clonmel and Thomastown, should be handed over by March. 

Update

This is despite previous HSE statements that the Midleton site was “likely” to be given over this month. The update was released to Social Democrats TD for Cork South Central, Pádraig Rice.

“While it’s welcome that the four remaining community nursing units are to be finally handed over to the HSE this quarter, we still have no idea when their doors will open,” he said.

“These projects were to be completed by 2024. In my own constituency, the HSE is saying that it could be Christmas by the time St Finbarr’s is open, two years behind target. That is simply not good enough. Why has delivery been allowed to drift? These facilities must be prioritised.”

The HSE’s interim national director for capital and estates, Michael Connelly, told Mr Rice the remaining four homes would now be handed over to the HSE during the first three months of this year.

“There have been delays in the construction completion of the overall community nursing unit PPP programme,” he said.

“All parties are actively engaging to address all outstanding items to achieve completion dates for all of the seven sites.”

The HSE can only apply for registration from the Health Information and Quality Authority after the handover of each individual building.

The Echo visited the Midleton site, which shares the grounds of the Midleton Community Hospital, earlier this month.

The locked building was surrounded by wire fencing and hoardings, but furniture could be seen through some of the large windows.