€8m healthcare centre planned for Wexford

By Conor CULLEN

Wednesday April 22 2009

A NEW €8 million primary healthcare centre is to be built in Wexford town. Rhonellen Developments said it has been selected by the Health Service Executive (HSE) as the preferred bidder to construct the new state-ofthe-art primary healthcare facility, which is designed to be a ' one-stop-shop' for the town's healthcare services.

A spokeswoman for the Dublin-based company said the new healthcare centre will be located at St. Aidan's, on a site just back from the junction of St. Aidan's Road and the Whitemill Road.

A significant number of jobs are expected to be created during the construction of the new healthcare centre and – in the medical, administration and healthcare sectors – when it opens its doors. The company have pledged to employ local people, companies and suppliers wherever possible.

Rhonellen Developments said they are already in discussion with local doctors who 'are critical to the success of the new centre'. There must be a minimum of five Wexford doctors working full-time from the new healthcare centre.

The importanc to this agreement was underlined yesterday (Tuesday) when the HSE, in a statement, said there is no agreement in place yet to provide Wexford's healthcare centre, despite Rhonellen's current status as preferred bidders.

' The nationally agreed process requires that certain conditions be met before agreement can be reached with any developer. Consequently there is no agreement in place for Wexford town,' said the statement.

However, Rhonellen Developments maintained that they have the go-ahead to build the health centre prior to securing the curcial agreement with local GPs and fulfilling other technical issues.

' Discussions have begun with local doctors to relocate their GP practices to the new one-stop-shop healthcare centre. In line with HSE and Government policy on primary healthcare, the new facility will offer the full range of healthcare services.

'A team of healthcare professionals will be located on site including doctors, nurses, home help, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers,' said the spokeswoman.

'Once we have reached agreement with the GPs, we will then proceed to planning permission,' she added.

Rhonellen Developments, as the lead developer of the project ,will provide the funding for the new centre, which the company reckons will cost around ¤8 million.

Carol O'Byrne, Marketing Director of Rhonellen Developments. said that the new facility 'will deliver unrivalled healthcare excellence to the people of the area'.

A planning application is expected to be lodged shortly. ' We are conscious of the employment opportunities this will create, starting with construction. To this end, we hope to identify local people, companies and suppliers who will benefit, thus ensuring real and immediate community gain.

- Conor CULLEN