THE COUNTRY’S largest private healthcare provider, the Bons Secours Health System, has applied for planning permission for a €100 million expansion to its hospital in Cork as part of an overall €250 million investment in facilities nationally.
The company has sought planning for a five-storey extension to the Bons Secours Hospital on College Road in Cork which will allow for an expansion of cancer, cardiology, orthopaedic and acute medical and surgical services at the hospital.
According to Bons Secours Group chief executive, Pat Lyons, the Cork expansion will include the development of a new cancer centre with radiotherapy, a PET/CT scanner as well as expanded day ward and inpatient facilities.
“We currently have well-established cancer services in medical oncology, surgery, radiology and pathology. The addition of radiotherapy services will mean the Bon Secours Cancer Centre will provide a full range of cancer services for its patients,” he said.
The development at the hospital, which currently has over 18,000 admissions and 29,000 outpatients annually, will feature 80 private rooms, to bring its bed capacity to over 420, and it is expected to take two years to complete once planning is cleared, he said.
The development will also include a theatre extension to accommodate a major expansion of orthopaedic services, two additional “clean air” orthopaedic theatres, day ward facilities, intensive care unit and cardiac care unit expansions and endoscopy and laboratory expansions.
“The development will see the hospital maintain its role as a Centre of Excellence, complementing and integrating with the existing services in the Munster region,” said Mr Lyons.
The development will be located to the rear of the existing hospital and will link to it by means of enclosed connections.
The former Bons Secours Maternity Hospital in Cork, which opened in 1958 and closed last year following 100,000 births, has already been incorporated into the general hospital and converted to allow for the expansion of oncology, cardiology and orthopaedic services.
“Over the past five years, the Bon Secours Health System has pursued a progressive development plan, investing €100 million in new technology and facilities,” said Mr Lyons.
“This development, together with our planned programme for our Galway and Tralee hospitals and the development of consultant clinics in Dublin, will result in an overall investment of some €250 million.”
Mr Lyons said that the construction of a new block at the 90-bed Bon Secours Hospital Galway (formerly Galvia Private Hospital) to accommodate additional beds, physiotherapy facilities and a new hospital restaurant will begin this autumn.
“As a not-for-profit organisation, we entirely reinvest our returns in maintaining and developing our facilities,” said Mr Lyons, adding that the group now employs over 2,000 people at hospitals in Cork, Dublin, Tralee and Galway.