A SWISS-based hospital operator has been appointed to run a new €80 million private hospital to be developed by Owen O’Callaghan in Cork, due to open in late 2010.
La Tour Rèseau de Soins, the biggest private hospital operator in Geneva, employs over 900 medical personnel and operates in five countries.
The 100-bed, 140,000sq ft hospital, to be built at Mr O’Callaghan’s Lancaster Quay development on the Western Road in Cork city centre, will include six operating theatres and 20 consulting suites.
The hospital will include surgical day beds and recovery beds, intensive care, an oncology ward, physiotherapy facilities and a cafeteria. O’Callaghan Properties has already built a new hotel for Jurys and some 175 apartments on the five-acre site.
The hospital will be built on a two-acre portion of the site adjacent to the four-star Jurys hotel. The project will create 350 construction jobs and 300 positions within the hospital, once construction and fit out are complete.
The plans for the site were lodged in May and Cork City Council gave the go-ahead earlier this week. However, conditions were attached including a development contribution of close to €1 million.
Owen O’Callaghan, chairman of O’ Callaghan Properties, said the project has already attracted support from a number of medical professionals.
“We are very pleased to announce La Tour as the operators of our new hospital. We are convinced that the location of our site in the very heart of Cork city is the ideal location for this new facility.
“This view has been firmly reinforced by the huge support from the medical professionals that we have already spoken to and indeed by La Tour,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
Jim Bissell, chief executive of La Tour International said the new hospital would address a “significant deficit in the provision of Irish private healthcare”.
“We are committed to working with Owen O’Callaghan and his team to deliver the most modern purpose built medical facility in Europe. The hospital will have the best equipment and is being supported by some of Ireland’s top medical consultants.
“There is in our opinion a significant deficit in the provision of Irish private healthcare. This is particularly true in the case of the southern region and in Cork,” Mr Bissell said.
The new hospital is within walking distance of the Bon Secours Hospital on Cork’s College Road, where planning permission was granted in April for a €100 million expansion by An Bord Pleanála.
The current proposal from O’Callaghan Properties is the latest in a series of private hospital initiatives in Cork and follows an application by the Beacon Medical Group to establish a €242 million private hospital on the grounds of Cork University Hospital.