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Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney TD, officially announced today (Friday, 10th December 2010), the commencement of the construction of a new purpose built 200-bed care unit by the Highfield Hospital Group; one of Ireland’s leading privately owned hospitals. The project will take 18 months to complete and will employ over 300 construction staff immediately for construction firm JJ Rhatigans. When completed, the hospital will employ a further 150 members of staff across all levels of care.
The Minister joined the management of the Group in the laying of the foundation stone ceremony at this new development.
This new €37 million mental health facility for older people will be located next to the site of their existing hospital on the Swords Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9. Highfield Hospital and the Alzheimer Centre will continue to operate throughout the construction stage of the new project. This new facilitity will consist of a mix of 100 mental health beds and 90 nursing home beds. In addition, a 10-bed unit will be built to provide acute psychiatric care for both the adult and older population.
The new care facilities will see the areas of specialisation broken down into three central areas of care. The Mental Health Facility is being built to replace the existing Hampstead and Highfield hospitals and will be a two-floor facility. The Acute Psychiatric Unit will comprise of 10 single rooms, all of which will be en-suite designed to cater for people with general adult and old age psychiatric conditions. The nursing home will be split over 3 floors, with 6 sections containing 10 beds each that are dementia specific units for older people. The layout and model of the dementia-specific residential care unit is specific to its stated purpose and adheres to evidenced-based principles on dementia care and design as highlighted by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in recent reports.
Commenting on this new development, Stephen Eustace, Chief Executive of the HighField Hospital Group said, "Over the past 185 years our family business has been deeply involved in the care of people with mental health problems. This is central to our thoughts throughout our work and the new facility we announced today is truly world class and will be built to the latest HIQA standards. Today, we are delighted to welcome the Minister back to our facility to open our next phase in care.”
Minister Mary Harney TD went on to say, “These new care facilities will be purpose built and designed to meet the future needs of older people, in particular those experiencing mental health problems. When this project is complete the quality of the services provided will have a real impact on the lives of residents. I am familiar with many of the facilities in the Highfield Hospital Group and am confident that the strong commitment to the provision of quality person centred services which the Eustace family promote will be continued in this new unit in Whitehall.”
The Highfield Hospital Group’s philosophy is to provide a strong caring environment and a commitment to meet the needs of all individuals within their care. The Group has continuously sought to modernise and upgrade its facilities. In 1991, the group opened Ireland’s first dedicated Alzheimer centre for residential care. Since then, the Group has expanded to complement it’s world-class facility. It now runs parallel services which provide critical support in all aspects of residential, day and respite care, including outpatient assessment, information helplines, support groups, a memory clinic and domiciliary assessments.
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