HSE set to lodge planning application for hospice
The Health Services Executive (HSE) has signalled its intention to submit a planning application in the coming days for the construction of the new Midlands Regional Hospice.
A recent planning notice outlined the HSE's plans to seek planning approval from Offaly County Council for the proposal to construct the 20-bed hospice at a site on Arden Lane, Tullamore.
The planning notice comes on foot of the selection in September last by the then Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, of the Arden Lane site as the location for the long-planned hospice.
The hospice is due to serve the four counties of Offaly, Laois, Westmeath and Longford, which is the only region in the country still without specialist in-patient palliative care services.
The project will comprised a mix of one-storey and two-storey buildings, 20 inpatient bedrooms, day care services and admin buildings.
Also outlined in the planning notice was the provision of 80 parking spaces as well as 30 bicycle spaces.
Planning permission is also being sought for a two-way road, new footpath and street lighting along Arden Lane, including road upgrades.
The Midlands Hospice, which has been the beneficiary of a huge community fundraising initiative across the region, was originally due to be constructed on a site within the grounds of Tullamore Hospital, but this was ultimately deemed to be unsuitable.
A second site, known as the Wellwood site, was also offered to the HSE free of charge in September 2023 by Offaly Hospice. This site is located on the campus of a 99-bed private hospital which has been granted planning permission and is due to be constructed on a site just off the N52 on the outskirts of Tullamore.
When he announced the preferred site for the Midlands Hospice last September, Minister Donnelly stipulated that unless planning permission was granted, along with an agreed road widening plan and funded commitments from the relevant State bodies to bring services to the Arden Lane site “within 12 months” he would be instructing his Department and the HSE to revert to the Wellwood site “should it still be available, as the designated site."