Health minister set to choose new site in Offaly for Midlands hospice

THE Wellwood health campus in Tullamore has emerged as a possible location for the planned Midlands hospice after a proposal to build it on the grounds of the Midlands Regional Hospital in the town was dropped.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Offaly Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen confirmed last week that the Wellwood site off the Tullamore bypass, and another site off Arden Lane, are now being considered.

The Tullamore Tribune has also learned that hospice groups in the Midlands are divided on which of the two sites is most appropriate for the 20-bed unit.

The Wellwood site is home to a partially constructed private hospital on land controlled by local company John Flanagan Developments.

Following the failure of the original hospital project at the site, the developer is now optimistic that it will succeed in plans to complete a facility there with 56 in-patient beds and significant outpatient capacity.

Speaking after visiting both the Wellwood and Arden Lane sites, Minister Donnelly recalled that he had committed €24 million to the project, that it had been upgraded from 16 to 20 beds, and that it was originally going to be built at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore.

“It was the best site available at the time but it came with some significant limitations. Since then two other sites have become available for appraisal,” said the minister.

Along with Deputy Cowen, he met the hospice groups and clinical leads to discuss the sites.

“Both of those sites are clearly going to provide better palliative care to the people of the Midlands than the hospital site.

“Both are excellent sites, there are marginal pluses and minuses to each of the sites, and we'll make a decision very quickly. Then what I'm keen is we move as quickly as possible.

“One of the things I want to do is parallel process as much of this as we can, so detailed design and planning, and in so far as is possible, tendering, to try and catch up for some of the time that was taken to assess these two extra sites.”

Deputy Cowen said all the stakeholders had been involved in a process of consideration as to which site would be best placed to deliver the hospice and the talks with the groups today were part of that.

“Thereafter that goes to the minister for adjudication,” said the TD.

When it was put him that some hospice campaigners preferred the Arden Lane site because it is larger, Deputy Cowen said: “Size is one of the considerations; accessibility, co-location, zoning, planning, clinicians' views, all combine to allow for a very informed decision that everybody will unite behind.

“The minister has said he is committed to funding it in the capital plan and he will bring together parallel means by which this can progress a lot quicker than would normally be the case to catch up on the time.

“Everybody has come to this from the perspective of wanting to provide a facility where there was none. This is the only region in the country that doesn't have a facility.

“We want everybody to be united behind a decision which provides a facility and a service that augments the quality of the service that we have presently.”

Asked if he had a preference, Deputy Cowen said: “I am deliberating as well as everybody else is in making our views and our opinions known. I think it is only fair that process be allowed to be completed and allow the minister, as is his duty, to make a decision thereafter.”

Minister Donnelly said he will “balance the various advice” he has been getting.

“We have clinical advice, we have technical, administrative advice and what was really important to me today, and that's why I wanted to meet the groups, was to hear directly from the community groups who have spent years fundraising for this site as to what they want.

“Ultimately, regardless of which site gets chosen we have two excellent sites and the Midlands is going to have a state of the art 20-bed hospice that will be the envy of the country.”

The minister would not comment on the potential cost of either the Wellwood or Arden Lane sites but Deputy Cowen said: “That won't determine the decision because it's not excessive at all. Both sites are being made available at very competitive, and punitive, rates.”

Campaigning has been ongoing for decades for a hospice in Offaly and the chair of Offaly Hospice is Tullamore-based Professor Humphrey O'Connor.

A local group established by Tullamore Lions Club, Hooves 4 Hospice, has raised close to €1m and the agreement of all the hospice groups in the Midlands on Tullamore as the location for the building was seen as key to it getting the go-ahead from the Government.

Veronica Larkin, North Westmeath Hospice, said the land off Arden Lane would be preferable because at more than three acres it is larger and offered scope for expansion.

She said a tender-like adjudication process which had already taken place had seen the Arden Lane site come out on top in a marking scheme, by 86 to 82.5.

She said she was aware of concerns about the Arden Lane site's current zoning but added: “We would hope the planners in Tullamore would see the merits of this site for the betterment of all the people in this area.”

A senior source close to the hospice groups indicated they believed Minister Donnelly's comment that he will choose between the two sites very quickly.