Long-awaited new medical school for Cork moves a step closer 

New €17.6m clinical medical school will be located on Cork University Hospital campus

According to University College Cork, the long-awaited development will help address 'significant shortfalls in existing educational and student support facilities for the student population at CUH'. Picture: Larry Cummins

The HSE has gone out to tender for a new €17.6m clinical medical school to support the teaching of medical students on the Cork University Hospital (CUH) campus.

According to University College Cork, the long-awaited development will help address “significant shortfalls in existing educational and student support facilities for the student population at CUH”.

“University College Cork have long recognised the need to develop high-quality educational and training facilities at the Cork University Hospital campus,” it said. 

“[The development aims to] meet the anticipated increasing requirements in providing undergraduate facilities at the site as the consolidation of acute services progresses.” 

The three-storey building will be 3,240sq m in floor area, and can allow future development of a further two storeys on site.

A new school was originally proposed in 2006, with the case for a new facility bolstered by a formal HSE audit of teaching space at CUH in 2015. That audit identified a number of issues, including deficiencies across the size of teaching spaces, classrooms, educational IT infrastructure and limited library facilities.

The HSE applied for planning permission in October 2020, along with supporting documentation from the design team at Avanti Architects.

Avanti Architects said the new development would be a “modern, purpose-built" educational facility and would offer the opportunity to address the existing “significant shortfalls” in facilities for undergraduates at CUH.

It said CUH was “the major clinical teaching site for UCC School of Medicine” and that “at any one time, between 170-200 clinical medical students are on full-time clinical placement with consultants and services based at CUH”.

Cork City Council granted permission for the development in April 2021, attaching six conditions related to visual amenity, traffic safety and public health.

The building will comprise 2,400sq m of teaching and student space and a further 800sq m of “shell” space set aside for future education, training and research needs for the HSE.

A notice on the UCC website said all statutory approvals had been granted for the project, with it expected to go to tender in the third quarter of 2023.

In its tender notice, the HSE said it expected the project to take 20 months to complete, with an indicative budget of €17.6m. It intends to appoint a contractor following the expiry of the tender notice next month.