Council tells HSE to develop existing hospital

The HSE has been told that it should develop a hospital it has rather than spend millions of euro on a new one on the southside of Cork city.

Cork County Council is to write to the HSE saying that instead of building a new hospital at Curraheen, near Bishopstown, it should utilise the 117-acre St Stephen’s Hospital in Glanmire.

Councillors want the HSE to refurbish a number of derelict building on the St Stephen’s Hospital site as emergency accommodation for the growing number of homeless people. This hospital, which opened as a regional sanatorium in 1956, is currently used to treat mental health patients, children with learning difficulties and problem teenagers.