BREAKING NEWS: Green light for the construction of new hospital in Tullamore

Offaly County Council has granted planning approval for the construction of a new 99 bed acute hospital in Tullamore.

John Flanagan Developments lodged the application for the hospital in December last year.

The facility will be located at the Wellwood Health campus on the N52 bypass.

Joint Managing Director, Dominic Doheny said ''this is probably the only live hospital plan in the country at the moment and given the whole narrative around the lack of capacity it can only be a good news story. It's a huge opportunity for the HSE, one they didn't have before,'' he said.

Mr Doheny said the company is having high level discussions at the moment with the HSE and private groups the hospital may be a public/private venture or public.

The new hospital will include six operating theatres, endoscopy suites and a full range of diagnostic supports which would ''help to address the deficit in such services in the Midlands.''

In 2021 the Flanagan group was granted permission to build a 244 bedroom, four storey nursing home and step down facility on the same site. However, a change in focus came about following talks with end users, who felt there was a greater need for a hospital to help offset the massive patient waiting lists currently being experienced.

It is hoped that work can begin on the development towards the end of this year, using the familiar steel structure on the bypass. Safety tests have been carried out on the framework and 99% of it will remain.

''The new hospital is part of the Wellwood Healthcare Campus'' said John Flanagan, Joint Managing Director. ''We expect that 200 plus people will be employed during the construction phase.''

This is the second time Flanagan Developments have applied to build a hospital on the Wellwood site. Construction was well underway and the steel structure on the Tullamore bypass has been in place since the project was shelved in 2008 following the downturn in the economy.