Minister hopes new primary care centres in West Cork will reduce hospital admissions

The two new primary care buildings are in Bantry and Clonakilty

Minister of Health Stephen Donnelly at Bantry General Hospital today. The Bantry primary care building is home to 18 medical and healthcare services and two GP practices. Picture: Michael MacSweeney/Provision

Two new primary care centres in West Cork will bring health services closer to some 60,000 people in their catchment areas and reduce hospital admissions, the Health Minister said on Friday.

Stephen Donnelly was speaking as he officially opened the centres in Bantry and Clonakilty. They will provide a range of health services to people in the region, which includes several inhabited islands, before he later visited the new €5m, 20-bed extension at Clonakilty community hospital.

The 32,000 sq ft Bantry primary care building, fully operational since July 2022, was used as a vaccination centre during the pandemic. The vaccination centre has relocated and mental health services have now moved into the building.

Today, it is home to 18 medical and healthcare services and two GP practices, and caters for over 500 appointments a week.

It offers a range of services including audiology, a community medical doctor, dental, diabetes prevention and diabetic retinopathy, home support, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, as well as speech and language therapy, smoking cessation, South Doc, palliative care and public health nursing.

The 23,000 sq ft Clonakilty centre, which has been opening on a phased basis since 2021, offers the same range and types of services but also includes the Waterfront Medical Centre, with 13 staff, including five GPs. Combined, the facility deals with over 500 appointments per week.

Work is ongoing to provide a large group room on the campus for therapists as part of a primary care waitlist initiative and to allow Cork University Maternity Hospital provide antenatal and postnatal services in the community.

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The head of primary care for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Priscilla Lynch, said co-locating services in these two new primary care centres helps to co-ordinate and integrate services.

“We want everyone living here—no matter how remotely—to be able to access all the care and support they need under one roof, thereby reducing the number of hospital admissions with patients being cared for by multi-disciplinary teams as close to their home as possible," she said.

Mr Donnelly said the two centres, which are among a network of 167 primary care centres nationwide, are important advances in the provision of healthcare in the region and are key parts of the Enhanced Community Care programme—the new, integrated model of care designed to bring healthcare closer to where people live.

He said:

This really is the future, multi-disciplinary care in their own communities, to keep them well at home, keep them well in their communities, and keep hospitals as a last resort for when people really need them.

“This requires strong leadership and ownership at local level, bringing the relationship between general practice, primary care and specialist community care into a much more patient-focused and integrated model of care in each locality."

“The work I have seen underway in West Cork today shows that this integrated way of working is embedded here and delivering results for communities.” 

Mr Donnelly also visited Clonakilty community hospital to view the recently completed €5m, 20-bed extension which will provide four extra dementia-specific beds and a 16 single room unit, called Silverwood.

It was inspected by HIQA recently and once the registration process is complete, it will bring the hospital’s overall bed capacity to 108.