The HSE is looking to bring vacant buildings on the St. Conal’s Campus in Letterkenny back to working order.
A refurbishment of the old ‘1901’ building is a priority as part of an accommodation review underway in the area. The main St. Conal’s building is set to be repurposed for clinical use only.
The project will take a significant amount of work, the Regional Health Forum West meeting heard this week.
Dermot Monaghan, Chief Officer of the Community Healthcare Organisation Area 1, said very good progress is being made on the development of a long term strategy for St Conal’s.
Over the last 10 years, HSE -Capital & Estates have carried out a number of projects on St Conals campus which
included internal refurbishments (which have seen a number of services in rental properties relocate to St. Conals). Fabric upgrade works are ongoing, including the replacement of the roof coverings, re-rendering the external facades and window repairs.
Mr Monaghan told Cllr Gerry McMonagle, Chair of the Regional Health Forum West, that he was taken aback by the levels of run-down buildings following a recent walkabout on the campus.
He said the HSE’s first priority is to move on the historic 1901 building and make it safe for people to work in again.
“The plan is to have a capital infrastructure plan that turns that location back into facilities and services that can be utilised more appropriately,” Mr Monaghan said.
Cllr McMonagle, “These are significant buildings that have been vacant for a long time and could have been put to better use before this. I would hope now that we would have a plan that would not be that far ahead that we would bring them buildings into use again, and if not for the HSE that we would look at alternative uses for other them for other agencies.”
