{"id":43253,"date":"2025-09-04T14:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43253\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T14:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:23:08","slug":"historic-cork-tb-hospital-to-be-transformed-into-e15m-state-of-the-art-healthcare-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/43253\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Cork TB hospital to be transformed into \u20ac15m state-of-the-art healthcare hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

HEATHERSIDE Hospital, a former TB sanatorium in North Cork, is set for a \u20ac15m-plus investment, following its sale to a property developer who has pledged to create a state-of-the-art community care hub.<\/p>\n

Gerard Fitzgerald, from Limerick but based overseas, told the Irish Examiner that, though his plans are \u201cstill being finalised\u201d, he envisages creating an expansive health campus on the c 20-acre site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This would include a care home, a day-care centre for the elderly, a children\u2019s disability centre, a pharmacy, a GP surgery, as well as mental-health services and services for victims of domestic abuse. The campus would also include a rehabilitation centre, where patients discharged from hospital could recover before returning home. Apartments are part of the longer-term plan.<\/p>\n

\"HeathersideHeatherside Hospital, Buttevant, is set to be turned into a state of the art \u20ac15m health campus<\/p>\n

Mr Fitzgerald\u2019s decision to purchase the site \u2014 which sold in recent weeks for above the \u20ac300,000 asking price \u2014 was partly informed by its proven suitability as a healthcare setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe former Heatherside has offered, in the past, great fresh air and rest and beautiful, recreational outdoor space to enjoy in the middle of the Ballyhoura mountains,\u201d Mr Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

He added that what he was proposing was \u201cbadly needed, as there is nothing like it around here\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will offer a great opportunity for employment locally \u2014 during the construction phase and when the campus is up and running \u2014 and also great support for the surrounding communities in the general south of Ireland and the Munster region,\u201d Mr Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He added that his wife, a qualified nurse whose background is in psychology and healthcare research, would look after the day-to-day running of the campus when it was completed, which he estimated would take between four and five years.<\/p>\n

The developer, who started out as a bricklayer, hopes to be on site to conduct a preliminary assessment before Christmas. He plans to retain as much of the original buildings as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would probably be easier to rebuild it from scratch, but I don\u2019t want to do that, as I\u2019d like to protect the site\u2019s heritage. I\u2019ll be looking to preserve about 90% of what is there, and to enhance it.\u201d Mr Fitzgerald estimates that the project will cost \u201c\u20ac15m plus\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of the buildings on site, the main one is a sprawling, two-storey hospital complex, dating to 1909. A curved, 55,000 sq ft (5,081 sq m) structure, it has various projections and numerous rooms opening at ground- and first-floor level to terraces and balconies, as befitted a sanatorium, where fresh air and rest were considered the route to recovery for consumptive patients. Ancillary buildings include a church and a house from the 1930s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"InsideInside of the church at Heatherside\u00a0<\/p>\n

While some buildings feature on the National Inventory of Buildings of Ireland, they are not listed as protected structures.<\/p>\n

The complex, in a secluded cul-de-sac setting about 9km north of Buttevant and 19km north of Mallow, is near enough to Mr Fitzgerald\u2019s home parish of Dromina\/Athlacca. Built after years of rampant TB, the sanatorium later served as a 180-bed geriatric unit, as well as an overflow facility for the Cork Mental Hospital, before the HSE closed it in 2010.<\/p>\n

\"Heatherside,Heatherside, when it was in use by the HSE. Picture: Provision<\/p>\n

\u00a0More recently, it was considered by the Government for use as accommodation for international-protection applicants, but was deemed unsuitable.<\/p>\n

Mr Fitzgerald said his plan to transform it in to a cutting-edge community care hub was positive news for the area and would secure Heatherside\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hurdles to get over first, in terms of planning, but the site has a health background, which should work in our favour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While Mr Fitzgerald\u2019s work in the UK and Europe often involves buying strategic sites, waiting for re-zoning, obtaining planning permission, and selling them on, he does not intend to sell on the Ballyhoura site. \u201cIt will have a change of name, though,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will no longer be called Heatherside.\u201d Heatherside was brought to market in May this year by Sherry FitzGerald agents David McCarthy and Amanda Isherwood. The agents said the property \u201cgenerated substantial interest from a diverse range of purchasers, each considering various potential future uses\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to report the successful completion of the sale, in excess of the guide price, following a successful Tender process,\u201d they said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HEATHERSIDE Hospital, a former TB sanatorium in North Cork, is set for a \u20ac15m-plus investment, following its sale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[9521,9520,18,135,475,474,19,17,3525],"class_list":{"0":"post-43253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-building","9":"tag-construction-munster","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-care","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-planning-permission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}