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Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly today (Friday, June 16th) visited a number of key community healthcare projects in West Cork, officially opening both Bantry Primary Care Centre and Clonakilty Primary Care Centre – and paying a courtesy visit to Clonakilty Community Hospital.

The ribbon-cutting events at Bantry and Clonakilty Primary Care Centres highlighted the progress underway in bringing health services and decision-making closer to communities, through the HSE Enhanced Community Care programme. The centres are bringing together many kinds of health service staff so that they can deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

Minister Donnelly said:

“An essential theme in the Enhanced Community Care programme is developing a new, integrated model of care, which is responsive to the needs of local communities. This requires strong leadership and ownership at local level, bringing the relationship between General Practice, primary care and specialist community care into a much more patient-focused and integrated model of care in each locality. The work I have seen underway in West Cork today shows that this integrated way of working is embedded here and delivering results for communities.”

Minister Donnelly added that the new primary care centres, as well as the substantial extension at Clonakilty Community Hospital, are important advances in the provision of healthcare for, and within, the West Cork community.

Minister Donnelly first cut the ribbon on the 32,000 square foot Bantry Primary Care Centre, which is home to 18 medical and healthcare services and two GP practices. Over 500 appointments take place there each week.

Minister Donnelly then travelled to Clonakilty Community Hospital, where he met staff and residents and viewed a recently-completed 20-bed extension. The new €5 million extension commenced in February 2020 and it was completed at the end of 2022. This extension will provide 4 additional dementia-specific beds and a new unit, called Silverwood, which will have 16 single rooms. The new extension was inspected by HIQA recently and the registration process is currently underway. The overall bed capacity of the hospital will be 108 beds once the new extension is registered.

Finally, Minister Donnelly officially opened the 23,000 square foot Clonakilty Primary Care Centre on Clarke St, home to 16 medical and healthcare services, with over 500 appointments per week.

At both official openings, speeches were given by the Mayor of Cork County Cllr Danny Collins and by the Head of Primary Care for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Priscilla Lynch. Also present were community representatives from Bantry Age Friendly group, Clonakilty Men’s Shed, West Cork Traveller Organisation, Meals on Wheels and Clonakilty Autism Friendly group.

Ms Lynch said: 

“Network 10 in West Cork is a large geographic area of 59,444 people, with many of the population living in rural areas and also encompassing inhabited islands. Co-locating services in Bantry and Clonakilty Primary Care Centres helps to co-ordinate and integrate services, and support collaborative working. We want everyone living here – no matter how remotely – to be able to access all the care and support they need under one roof, thereby reducing the number of hospital admissions with patients being cared for by multi-disciplinary teams as close to their home, as possible.”

Minister Donnelly met staff providing services from both primary care centres, as well as the Network Manager for primary care services in the region, Dr Emer Shanley and the GP Lead for the Network Dr Michael Kingston.

Dr Shanley said:

“This is a great day for the people of West Cork, and the staff in both Bantry and Clonakilty Primary Care Centres who work so hard together to deliver a top-class service, day in and day out. We are committed to building relationships with the many communities in our region, providing people with the care they need all under one roof, in purpose-built modern buildings.

We are proud of the work done to transfer HSE services to these new centres. This is part of the transformation of our health services and a move to offering care as close to home as possible. The entire Enhanced Community Care programme depends on collaboration and bringing services together. We promote the health and wellbeing of the local population by making people’s first point of contact with HSE services easily accessible and integrated with other parts of the health service.”

Speaking about the new extension at Clonakilty Community Hospital, Aileen O’Neill, General Manager for Older Persons said:

“It is wonderful to be able to show the minister the new 20-bed extension to Clonakilty Community Hospital, which has been caring for local people since 1830. The new €5 million extension will provide four additional dementia-specific beds and a new unit, which will have 16 rooms. The new extension was inspected by HIQA recently and the registration process is currently underway. The overall bed capacity of the community hospital will be 108 when completed and will be a valuable addition to the West Cork community.”  

Bantry Primary Care Centre:

•  The building of the centre at Droumleigh South, by Droumleigh Construction Ltd, commenced in January 2018 and the centre has been fully operational since July 2022.
• Bantry Primary Care Centre is in Community Healthcare Network 10 West Cork (including Beara, Bantry, Mizen, Drimoleague, Dunmanway, Ballineen, Enniskeane, Rosscarbery Skibbereen and Clonakilty).
• Services available include: Audiology, Community Intervention Team, Community Medical Doctor, Community Work, Counselling in Primary Care, Dental, Diabetes Prevention, Diabetic Retinopathy, Dietetics, Home Support, Mental Health Services, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Psychology – Children and Young People Services, Speech and Language Therapy, Smoking Cessation, Social Prescriber, Social Work, South Doc, Palliative Care and Public Health Nursing.
• The building was used as a vaccination centre for West Cork during the pandemic and now that the vaccination centre has relocated to another site, Mental Health Services have fully moved in since earlier this year.

Clonakilty Primary Care Centre:

• The centre has opened on a phased basis since 2021. The building was developed by Valley Healthcare and the main contractors were Clancy Construction. There is one medical practice located in the building, The Waterfront Medical Centre, which has 13 staff, including 5 GPs.
• Clonakilty Primary Care Centre is also in the Community Healthcare Network 10 West Cork, which includes Beara Bantry Mizen Drimoleague Dunmanway Ballineen Enniskeane Rosscarbery Skibbereen and Clonakilty.
• There is one Medical practice located in the building, The Waterfront Medical Centre which has 13 staff including 5 GPs
• Clonakilty Primary Care Centre has received Autism Friendly Accreditation and was awarded a Tobacco Free Campus bursary in 2023.
• Work is ongoing to provide a large group room on the campus to enable provision of group work delivered by therapists as part of waitlist initiatives in Primary Care, and also allow for group sessions to be provided by Cork University Maternity Hospital as part of an initiative to provide antenatal and postnatal services in the community in West Cork. 
• Services available include: Community Work, Counselling in Primary Care, Dental, Diabetes Prevention, Diabetic Retinopathy, Dietetics, Home Support, Mental Health Services, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Psychology – Children and Young People Services, Speech and Language Therapy, Smoking Cessation, Social Prescriber, Social Work, South Doc, Public Health Nursing.

About Enhanced Community Care (ECC) Programme:

• Developed as part of implementing Sláintecare, the ECC programme aims to ensure all HSE primary and community care services work in an integrated way to meet population health needs across Ireland, to reduce dependence on hospital services and provide access to consultant-led specialist services in the community.
• The ECC programme is already making substantial progress nationally, reducing pressure on services and dependence on the hospital-centric model of care.
• An essential theme underlying this programme is developing a new, integrated model of care, which is responsive to the needs of local communities. This requires strong leadership and ownership at local level.
• With staff recruitment well underway, it is projected that the ECC programme can achieve a 20% reduction in over-75s admitted to emergency departments in hospitals, freeing up critical acute care resources, once the programme is fully rolled out.
• Similarly, this community-based approach aims to deliver a 20% reduction in non-elective admissions for many chronic conditions, which represents a 20% reduction in bed days for those patients once the programme is fully rolled out.

Key components of the ECC Programme nationally:

• 3,500 additional staff, with funding of €240m allocated
• 94 Community Healthcare Networks, 23 Community Specialist Teams for Older People and 24 Community Specialist Teams for Chronic Disease already established nationally
• Over 2,600 staff recruited to date
• GPs, HSCPs (health and social care professions), and nursing leadership empowered at a local level to drive integrated care delivery and supporting transition from hospitals to the community
• Improved access to community diagnostics
• Increased and enhanced community services
• Collaboration with Alone in a model to co-ordinate community and voluntary supports across each CHN is being implemented, leveraging in a structured way the informal supports and volunteerism in local communities