Site needed for new Dean Maxwell nursing home in Roscrea

The creation of a new 50-bed public nursing home in Roscrea has progressed to procurement of a suitable site to build the facility, news welcomed by the families of the current residents of the Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Home in Roscrea town.

The HSE have opened an online portal for expressions of interest from interested parties on where the new facility should be built and have provided some guidelines on the suitable criteria.

The HSE say the site should be between 3.5 and 5 acres, be zoned and suitable for the development of a community nursing unit and be easily accessible to Roscrea town centre and local community facilities.

The HSE has advised that the deadline for submissions to estates.midwest@hse.ie is March 12th, 2025 at 12 noon.

The HSE is currently undertaking a review of potential site options in Roscrea and family representatives are pleased an information campaign is now being undertaken by the HSE seeking submissions.

A spokesperson for the families commented: “We are encouraged by the ongoing engagement by the HSE with families on the future of the Dean Maxwell and welcome this further positive step in making this new 50-bed nursing home a reality.

"Of course, there are many other steps that will need to be followed, not least planning, construction and commissioning. We look forward to working with the HSE and with local public representatives in ensuring that this development promptly receives the requisite capital funding and progresses as speedily as possible.

“Once the doors open on this new facility, it will mean a doubling of the existing capacity of the current Dean Maxwell which will help to significantly alleviate waiting lists and will also ensure that many more people in the town and surrounding areas who require long-stay nursing care can continue to call Roscrea home.”

The creation of a new 50-bed facility in St Conlon's in Nenagh, which became embroiled in controversy last year when the HSE decided to use the new building as a step-down facility to ease congestion in UHL hospital in Limerick, had caused concern in Roscrea that people seeking public nursing home care would be forced to move to Nenagh.

Those concerns were allayed last March when the HSE announced plans to create a new 50-bed facility on a greenfield site in Roscrea.

"Roscrea People have a right to live out their twilight years in their own place of belonging. With the facilities of the Dean Maxwell Home that basic principle was upheld in Roscrea, for its people, but without the long term stay facilities of the Dean Maxwell Home being secured, the people of Roscrea, of our generation, and of all future generations, will be denied that basic principle of human rights and justice, expected of a developed Society, which we claim to be," Roscrea Community Development Council (RCDC) Chairman, John Lupton said last year before the announcement of a new build facility.

The current Dean Maxwell facility, located adjacent to St Cronan's Church in Roscrea town centre, has 20 long-stay beds and two palliative care beds and the new 50-bed unit will more than double the present bed capacity, future proofing Roscrea to cater for the growing population of the town.

The HSE considered the possibility of replacing the existing Dean Maxwell Unit on its current site, a spokesperson said, but the landlocked site proved not feasible for redevelopment.

“It would not be feasible to construct a modern facility that would satisfy HIQA regulations within the site’s constraints. Additionally, current residents at the Dean Maxwell Unit would be displaced during reconstruction works, even if a suitable replacement on the existing site was possible.”

Considering these factors, the HSE decided to seek capital approval to identify a greenfield site close to the Dean Maxwell Unit and the HSE Mid West has commenced work on the identification of a site within the Roscrea area.