Hospital’s operations to transfer across city

The operations of Shanakiel Hospital are to be moved to the former Cork Medical Centre in Mahon in a move which will see the VHI provide cover for patients using the state-of-the-art €90m facility.

In a carefully choreographed transaction, the Mahon hospital — mothballed in early 2011 with the loss of 75 jobs — is expected to reopen in the coming months. All of the Shanakiel Hospital’s functions will be transferred from Sunday’s Well in the west of the city to Mahon in the east.

The new hospital will be run by the Mater Private, which has been working, since its closure, with the original developers John Cleary Developments to reopen the facility at City Gate.

The Irish Examiner understands that crucial VHI approval for the transfer of operations from the 44-bed facility on Cork’s northside to the 102-bed City Gate hospital has been secured, with the final details to be worked out in the coming weeks.

Last night, none of the key players in the proposed development — the Shanakiel Hospital, Mater Private, and JCD — would comment when contacted by the Irish Examiner.

The completion of the deal will provide extra private healthcare in Cork where a PriceWaterhouseCoopers report found “very significant gaps” in the private hospital provision of cancer, cardiac, and orthopaedic services across the southern region, comprising Cork city and county, along with Kerry, Waterford, Limerick, and Tipperary.

Once opened, the new hospital, with six ultra-modern operating theatres, has the potential to create 250 jobs.

Last May, an application from Mater Private Cork to reopen the former Cork Medical Centre in Mahon as a 102-bed private hospital was refused cover by the VHI.

The proposed closing of Shanakiel Hospital changes the private healthcare landscape in Cork. It enables the VHI to grant approval to Mater Private to establish a bridgehead into the lucrative private healthcare market in Munster, which is dominated by the rival Bon Secours Group with hospitals in Cork and Tralee.

The VHI faces a multi-million euro claim for damages from the liquidator of the original operators of the Cork Medical Centre, which failed in 2011 with the loss of 75 jobs.

Liquidator Kieran Wallace of accountants KPMG has begun High Court proceedings against the VHI on anti-competition grounds on behalf of the creditors of Cork Medical Centre.

Shanakiel Hospital, which opened in 1918, is of national historical significance. It was where Michael Collins was taken after he was mortally wounded during an ambush at Béal na mBláth 90 years ago.