HSE completes deal for former Liberty building in Cavan Town

The HSE has completed the purchase of the former Liberty Insurance building on the Dublin Road outside Cavan Town.

The premises is now in the process of being converted for use as an administrative hub for the Cavan and Monaghan area.

The building was purchased off-market for price in the region of €2 million.

It's understood the HSE hope to start fully occupying the building by early 2025.

Among those expected to take up position there is newly installed Integrated Health Area lead Dearbhla Ayres.

She falls under Sara Long who was appointed in charge of Dublin and North East, one of Ireland's six new health regions for the delivery of health services that came into being last March.

HSE Dublin and North East covers Cavan, North Dublin, Louth, Meath and Monaghan.

A spokesperson for the HSE confirmed that having “one central administrative hub” at Dublin Road will allow for the relocation of administrative staff from the HSE’s clinical settings “thereby vacating space that can be repurposed for the delivery of clinical services”.

Last year staff at several HSE divisions including Primary Care, Mental Health Services and Services for Older Persons, including Home Support, moved to new rented offices behind Blackstone Motors on the Dublin Road.

Elsewhere the HSE reached a 10-year agreement with local developer Labelbrook for accommodation at Cavan Town’s former Melbourne Bakery, having stuck a similar deal to rent the former Jackson’s Garage as a new Women & Children’s Service Outpatients Department (OPD).

In July the HSE submitted ambitious plans for a major five-storey extension to Cavan General Hospital. The designs, lodged with Cavan planners for approval, propose to add two more floors of bed space on top of what was previously granted for the site.

The 7,588 sq m accommodation development will now comprise of an Emergency Department and Endoscopy Unit at ground floor level, with inpatient ward accommodation spread across the first, second and third floors.

It follows a commitment to provide additional beds at the hospital, with the number tripled to 58 from earlier plans.

The new endoscopy unit will include three procedure and two recovery rooms. Meanwhile, the relocated and enhanced ED will contain two resuscitation bays, 10 major injury treatment bays, six minor injury treatment bays, as well as three paediatric and three isolation rooms.

Cavan General Hospital was opened in the late 1980s but has seen a massive surge in patient numbers over the past decade.

Separately, plans are being progressed for a new Oncology Unit at Cavan General - included in the HSE’s Capital Plan for 2023.

This involves a new three-storey block built on the northern side of the existing front hospital entrance, as well as upgrades to the existing pharmacy and provision of a new Aseptic Unit.

It will require the relocation of the current physio department to allow the space become a new eight-patient day ward/post theatre recovery area.

The hospital still also has plans to build a new 30 bed Acute Assessment Mental Health Unit to replace the existing 25-bed at Cavan General.

Issues there were recently highlighted following an inspection by the Mental Health Commission (MHC).

The HSE spokesperson said it's Capital & Estates department have “engaged an architect” to carry out a “feasibility study” with a view to seeing if any “additional healthcare services” can also be delivered from the newly acquired former Liberty building.

The HSE spokesperson told the Celt they are “fully committed to delivering high quality, high specification for our employees and people who may use the [former Liberty building] to receive healthcare services”.