Plans lodged for new 10-bed mental health facility at Owenacurra

Drawing of the proposed Owenacurra Mental Health Community Rehabilitation residence on the site of the old Owenacurra Mental Health Unit in Midleton. The drawings are included in the application for planning permission lodged with Cork County Council this week.

A planning application has been lodged with Cork County Council for a replacement 10-bed mental health facility on the grounds of the existing Owenacurra centre in Midleton.

The HSE applied on December 20 for permission to demolish the existing facility, which before being marked for closure in 2021 had accommodated 20 long-term residents, and to replace it with a new single-storey building.

While the new facility will accommodate fewer patients, it will be larger in size than the existing building, with floor space of 1,220sq m compared to 1,119sq m in the current facility.

The new build, if approved, will also include 17 on-site parking spaces, external heat pumps, a back-up generator, and other landscaping and site works.

The news means planning for the new facility was lodged just over a month after HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster took a personal interest in the future of the site.

Mr Gloster last November informed Cork’s five TDs he intended 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. Picture: Howard Crowdy

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.

Commenting on the application lodged with the local authority, local councillor and prominent Owenacurra advocate Liam Quaide said it was “very welcome” to see Mr Gloster’s commitment “translate into a planning application”.

“The new-build service will bring an additional 10 placements to the region of East Cork. This is vital provision for people with the highest level of mental health need,” Mr Quaide said, adding the future outcomes for the six remaining residents of Owenacurra, who are set to be accommodated in two new properties purchased by the HSE in the locality, “appear to be much more favourable” under the new management team instated within the Cork/Kerry region.

While Mr Gloster’s intervention saw an application lodged in less than two months, the new 10-bed facility for Midleton was first announced by then HSE chief officer for Cork/Kerry Michael Fitzgerald in May 2022.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

However, in April 2023, 11 months after that announcement, the HSE confirmed a promised development team, to be appointed to conduct an options appraisal regarding the replacement facility, had yet to be constituted.

The HSE said at the time the team would not be constituted before “capital approval” for the unit had been received.

The multi-million commitment to the upgrade of mental health facilities in Midleton comes at a time in which the HSE is under considerable financial pressure across the country amid a perceived €1bn shortfall in the approved budget for the health service for 2024.

That shortfall has seen an ongoing recruitment freeze put in place across the health service by Mr Gloster, a decision which has led to the prospect of industrial action.