Owenacurra 'breakthrough' as HSE plans to build new mental health facility on existing site 

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster to 'engage personally' with Department of Health to secure building of 10-bed facility

Just six residents remain in Owenacurra mental health facility, of the 20 there when the HSE marked it for closure. Picture: Howard Crowdy

Campaigners hoping to save the Owenacurra mental health centre in Midleton have hailed a commitment by the HSE to build a new facility on the same property as a "major breakthrough".

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster has written to Cork-based TDs, informing them that he intends to “engage personally” with the Department of Health in order to secure the building of a new 10-bed facility on the Owenacurra site, thereby “modernising it, retaining it in the town, and addressing some of the previous articulated concerns that it would be further removed and isolated”.

The closure of Owenacurra, first mooted by the HSE in June of 2021, has been the subject of an intense campaign by locals, patients, and their families, aimed at keeping the centre open.

Cllr Danielle Twomey, Mary Hurley, and Cllr Liam Quaide protest against the proposed closure of the Owenacurra mental health facility. Picture: David Keane

Just six residents remain in the facility, of the 20 present when the HSE marked it for closure.

However, the centre — which the HSE has long insisted is not fit for purpose structurally, despite other mental health facilities in Cork receiving lower compliance ratings from the Mental Health Commission — has never officially closed its doors in that time.

Mr Gloster told TDs that one house has already been secured in the local area for three of the six remaining residents, and a second property is currently the subject of negotiations for purchase by the HSE for the remaining three, in the same locality.

Local independent councillor and Owenacurra campaigner Liam Quaide described the news as a “major breakthrough”.

This multi-million euro investment would not have come about without the relentless pressure of our campaign.

Mr Quaide said that as of December 2021, the HSE had no plans to replace Owenacurra, thus leaving East Cork with no 24-hour staffed mental health services of any sort.

Despite the breakthrough, Mr Quaide said “serious ethical questions remain” about the transfer of the other 14 residents from Owenacurra over the past 30 months. At least one of these residents was transferred to St Stephen’s Hospital in Glanmire, far from the Midleton area, and in a facility whose standards have faced heavy criticism from the mental health watchdog.

“I'm also concerned that the HSE is pushing ahead with a 50-bed long-stay facility on the isolated grounds of St Stephen’s Hospital,” Mr Quaid said, describing the plan as “a clear misdirection of funding” and a policy decision in contravention of the HSE’s own ‘A Vision for Change’ mental health policy.