Published: Wednesday, 10th February, 2010 6:00pm

Athlone's €20m health campus unlikely to start in 2010

There are growing concerns that the long-planned Athlone Primary Care unit is set for further delays.

Although, the project is ready to go to tender, confusion remains as to whether funding will be provided this year or next, for the project to start.

Athlone Town Council has now requested a meeting with the local HSE manager to get an update on what stage the primary care unit is at, and whether any work will start this year. However, sources close to the project have indicated that work will not start until at least 2011.

Although the primary care project is not specifically included in the HSE's service plan for 20101 published yesterday, a spokesperson for the organisation said the project, if it's to proceed, would need to be included in the as-yet unpublished HSE's National Capital Development Plan 2010,

Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, who has steadfastly rejected claims over the last few years that the project would not happen, is now concerned.

"I was told by the people within the HSE that it's not going to happen this year, the HSE has no money. That's what was told to me and I'm not scaremongering," said Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran yesterday (Tuesday). "Athlone won't start until 2011 at the earliest."

The councillor said that the HSE get an allocation for capital projects but even though Athlone is "top of the ladder" there are a list of projects that are priority and perhaps more urgent than Athlone. "It's been granted permission and there was work on site before Christmas but nothing since... I rang the people I know and was told sorry. I'm disappointed but you can't play the blame game, there's no money," Cllr Moran said.

"The Government should still spend money on education and health but there's major cutbacks in those and it's not good enough," added Cllr Moran.

The town council has written to local HSE Health Manager Joe Ruane asking for a meeting to update them on the situation. Last year, he told councillors that construction could start in June 2010.

Although the HSE did not say when the job would go to tender, this process usually takes six to seven months. The signing of contracts and the duration of the construction would vary depending on the contractor, however it's estimated at between 18 to 21 months to complete. This would mean that if construction began in 2011, it would finish at the earliest in late 2012.

In May 2009, the planning section of Westmeath County Council granted permission for the A&D Wejchert and Partners design. Among the services to be provided in the multi-million euro development include the MIDOC GP out of hours service, Mental Health Outpatient Services, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Dentistry and Radiology. Homecare, social work, speech and language therapy teams, rehabilitation services, out-patients, opthalmology, orthoptics and paediatrics will also be accommodated in the new Clonbrusk site.

After the planning was granted, it was then revealed that the approved expenditure of €750,000 for 2009 was only to progress the design phase of the overall project but a HSE spokesperson gave assurances that ring-fenced funding would not be affected. When he met the councillors, although Mr Ruane did not give an iron-clad guarantee that funding for the project would remain, he did stress that he had been told he had €20m to spend on the facility.