Talks underway on new hospital for Tullamore
A Tullamore company has confirmed it is in “high level” discussions with the HSE and private providers in relation to the provision of a new 99-bed hospital in the town – which it estimated could create 200 jobs in construction and another 200 once it is operational. It comes after John Flanagan Developments got the green light from Offaly County Council on February 3 for a new acute facility, on prominent land just off the bypass, on its Wellwood site at Ardan/Puttaghan.
Should it progress, the well known local developer put the investment at somewhere between €60 and €80 million to bring the new hospital on stream which it believes could be a public facility, a private facility or a blend of both.
“It's fantastic news that we're at this stage now,” Dominic Doheny, who is Joint Managing Director of John Flanagan Developments told the Offaly Independent on Wednesday, adding that having planning approval has catapulted this project onto another level.
Over the last 18 months the company has been engaging with public and private providers at a “serious level” who see the potential in this project, he explained.
“Given its strategic location in that it is co-located with a large regional hospital that makes it quite a unique opportunity. Not too many regional hospitals have a site like this beside it to develop a medical offering,” Mr Doheny said.
In July 2021, the company secured planning permission for a four-storey, 244-bed nursing home, ‘step down’ facility, rehabilitation and convalescence unit built on the same site, at Wellwood Health Park. But in December, the Tullamore firm changed tack and applied for planning permission for a change of use of this previously approved facility to a 99-bed private hospital on the 2.6 hectare parcel of land close to the Midlands Regional Hospital, Tullamore.
Speaking this week, Dominic Doheny who is Joint Managing Director with John Flanagan, explained that the reason they didn’t go ahead with the nursing home plan was because it opened doors with public/private providers in terms of step down facilities, and then in turn, acute hospital opportunities.
“It’s reported we have close to 1 million on the elective procedure waiting list. That’s from the minor ones, like say a catarract which is done in a couple of hours, to the very serious elective procedures like hips, knees and procedures that would mean overnight accommodation and more facilities,” he said, citing a trauma plan for Ireland which previously put the catchment for Tullamore at 405,000, the third highest in the country behind Cork and Tallaght.
What’s planned is six high end theatres, 99 acute beds with single rooms and a broad range of diagnostic services. “I’d be pretty confident in saying this is the only current live hospital project on a green field site,” said Mr Doheny, putting the potential investment at between €60 and €80 million.
He believes that the new hospital could potentially feed into ten counties and take pressure off hospitals in the west and east, given its geographical location.
“It could be a public or private (facility) or a blend of the two,” Mr Doheny said. Discussions have reopened between the local firm and the HSE and private providers to drill down into what exactly is required. “Nobody is saying the need is not there, both public and private are saying this is a great opportunity,” he said, estimating that approximately 200 workers would be needed in construction and another 200 when it’s in operation.
With the proposed hospital only occupying around half of the site, Mr Doheny predicted that it could become a very significant medical campus with the potential to be a catalyst to bring other synergies or firms to the area.
Work could begin before the end of year, if discussions progress, and Mr Doheny, a previous President of the Construction Industry Federation in 2017 and 2018, said he expects it would take between 18 and 24 months to build and open the hospital.
John Flanagan Developments Ltd originally planned a private hospital on this site back in 2007. Whilst work started on the structure of a building, the project did not proceed due to the global economic crash despite huge interest from leading medical operators from around Europe.
The company then sought permission for the nursing home project, which was designed to use the existing steel frame structure of the part-built planned private hospital project on the site. It was demonstrated for the nursing home plan that the existing steel frame building can be reused, and the the developer added in the planning documents that the “same circumstances” exist now in relation to the hospital proposal.
Offaly County Council granted planning permission for the project on February 3, subject to compliance with three planning conditions, the content of which is not known as the decision documents are not available as of yet on the local authority website.