Midlands Hospice planning application to be lodged “in March”
A planning application for the long-awaited Midlands Hospice is to be lodged with Offaly County Council “in March 2025” according to a statement issued by the HSE.
The statement from the HSE Midlands Integrated Healthcare Area said the new development project is “currently well advanced” through the detailed design stage and associated work, and confirmed that a planning application “will be lodged in March 2025.
The HSE statement also outlined that, in September 2024, the Arden Lane site in Tullamore was selected as the location for a new 20-bed hospice for the Midlands, with the new facility providing “specialist palliative care services for the Midlands region.”
The hospice is due to serve the four counties of Offaly, Laois, Westmeath and Longford, which is the only region in the country still without in-patient palliative care services.
The announcement of the preferred location for the new Midlands Hospice was made by former Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, after months of speculation when two possible sites for the new facility emerged.
Tullamore Lions Club, who have raised in excess of €1 million for the Midlands Hospice through their 'Hooves4Hospice' fundraising campaign, acquired a site on Arden Lane in April 2023 which was offered to the HSE free of charge.
A second site, known as the Wellwood site, was also offered to the HSE free of charge in September 2023 by Offaly Hospice. This site is located on the campus of a 99-bed private hospital which has been granted planning permission and is due to be constructed on a site just off the N52 on the outskirts of Tullamore.
The Midlands Hospice was originally due to be constructed on a site within the grounds of Tullamore Hospital, but this was ultimately deemed to be unsuitable.
When he announced the preferred site for the Midlands Hospice last September, Minister Donnelly stipulated that unless planning permission was granted, along with an agreed road widening plan and funded commitments from the relevant State bodies to bring services to the Arden Lane site “within 12 months” he would be instructing his Department and the HSE to revert to the Wellwood site “should it still be available, as the designated site."