Palliative care unit in castlebar granted planning permission

MAYO Roscommon Hospice Foundation has been granted planning permission to build a dedicated 14-bed specialist in-patient palliative care facility/hospice unit by Mayo County Council.

The permission is for a new building and landscaped gardens at Knockaphunta, Castlebar, and represents the first phase of Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation's capital development plan.

The hospice unit will include daycare and in-patient facilities, offering family support and therapies. It will also act as the central hub for community-based palliative care services, out-patient therapies and support services.

Chief executive of Mayo Roscommon Hospice, Cynthia Clampett, said: “We are delighted to have finally reached this stage in our project to develop a new hospice unit in Mayo. It has taken many years, tremendous hard work and a lot of support from all the people of both our counties, who are loyal to our foundation.

“We are so thankful to everyone for their support to date and ask them to please continue to help the cause of hospice by contributing to various fundraising efforts, such as our Buy a Brick campaign. We are very excited about the future and the great service the new buildings and gardens will give to our patients, families and staff.”

Phase two of the development plan is a similar eight-bed unit for Roscommon, and work on that is progressing also. “We are actively meeting with the relevant parties to make this a reality in the near future,” Cynthia explained. 

It is hoped that the Mayo unit will be opened in 2018. No date has been announced yet for the opening of the Roscommon unit.

Meanwhile, the foundation wishes to assure members of the public that the new developments will not diminish the palliative home care services in any way. Last year the palliative home care teams cared for 809 patients in the two counties (527 in Mayo and 282 in Roscommon), and this vital service could not be provided without the ongoing support of the public.