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Community hospitals boosted by €17m

February 1st, 2016 8:45 PM

By Jackie Keogh

Clonakilty Community Hospital.

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West Cork community hospitals have been given a lifeline following a €17.87m cash injection by the Government.

West Cork community hospitals have been given a lifeline following a €17.87m cash injection by the Government.

The investment in community hospitals in Dunmanway, Bantry, Castletownbere, Skibbereen, Bandon, Clonakilty and Kinsale means they will now be able to do the work required to comply with HIQA standards.

Public representatives and community groups had expressed concerns that without these works the very future of West Cork’s community hospitals and residential care centres would have been called into question.

The investment in these vital local services includes a €200,000 allocation in St Anthony’s Community Hospital in Dunmanway; €1.8m in St Joseph’s Bantry General Hospital; €1.04m in St Joseph’s Castletownbere Community Hospital; €2.59m in St Anne’s Skibbereen Community Hospital; €3.44m in Bandon Community Hospital; €5m in Clonakility Community Hospital; and €3.78m in Kinsale Community Hospital. Welcoming the investment, Fine Gael TD for Cork South West, Noel Harrington, said: ‘It will make a significant difference for elderly people in our communities. It will reassure our communities – particularly those who care for and who are ill and or infirm. 

‘It will allow those who require care and support to remain within their locality, close to their families at the most vulnerable stage of their lives,’ he added.

Labour TD Michael McCarthy said the future of these public nursing homes was ‘now secure as a result of this announcement, something which is very reassuring for those living in these homes and indeed their families’.

The €18m West Cork allocation is for refurbishment works and 2016 has being given as the completion date for the work in Dunmanway, with Bantry and Castletownbere due to be completed in 2017.

The Skibbereen, Bandon, Clonakilty and Kinsale refurbishment works are not scheduled to be completed until 2018.

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