Build timeline set out for €35m 50-bed Community Nursing Unit 

The 50-bed state-of-the-art community nursing unit (CNU) at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Roscommon Town will be built in two years at a cost of €35m, a senior HSE executive confirmed to the Roscommon Herald.

Speaking to the Herald before the recent sod turning ceremony, Des Mulligan, Head of Older Person’s Services, HSE Community Healthcare West, said the provision of the new long stay beds in the new unit would involve demolishing two of the existing wards.

He said the new build on the Golf Links Road would also prove additional beds at the site, enabling the HSE to provide many more services.

Mr Mulligan pointed out that the additional beds would help free up some of the existing beds to increase the short stay provision at the facility. “This is really important in terms of enabling older people to live at home for longer,” he said.

The new building will be state-of-the-art in terms of design and energy efficiency, but he also emphasised that the facility also had to be homely and a place where people wanted to live.

The HSE senior executive spoke about the importance of light in a building for people with cognitive impairments or dementia. There was evidence, he said, to confirm that light is beneficial in keeping people as cognitively aware as possible “so those are the kinds of things that would be now reflected in the new build.” Addressing those who gathered for the sod-turning ceremony, Mr Mulligan said the project was a long time in the making, and he had a special welcome for a number of residents present who will be moving into the modern accommodation when it is built in two years time.

“It’s a really important piece of work, it’s really important in terms of how we value our older people and how we value the kind of services we want to provide for them. What this allows us to do is provide a much more modern setting for people to live in,” he said.

Mr Mulligan continued: “Liz Lynott (Director of Nursing at the Sacred Heart Hospital) said it is one of the most important days of her career because she sees movement now and we are going to bring a new modern facility to fruition for older people in Roscommon. We are going to bring it additional capacity into the system for older people in Roscommon, and this will be here for generations to come.” 

 Speaking to the Roscommon Herald, Ms Lynott said she was proud to be the Director of Nursing at the Sacred Heart and was “excited at what the future held for us”.

Thanking her senior management colleagues and the HSE for their work in delivering the project, she pointed out that the capacity at the Sacred Heart would increase to almost 100 beds on completion of the new unit.

The successful contractor, Carey Building Contractors, were due on site last week to commence work.

The construction project will involve building the new CNU along with a new single storey modular kitchen to the east of the existing link corridor; and a new single storey building linking the residential accommodation to the existing corridor. The total floor area will more than 3,994 square metres.

The builders will also oversee the demolition of Our Lady’s and St Joseph’s wards - described by the HSE as outdated – along with the existing generator room, the catering staff changing rooms, and catering stores.

As well as refurbishing parts of the existing single storey structures, the contractor will also provide 68 new surface car parking spaces - replacing the existing 33 ones – along with 15 new bicycle parking spaces, a new low-level wall, and new landscaping works.