Every effort must be made now to ensure that the HSE fulfil its commitment to this centre and allow the people of North Clondalkin access to essential Health Care.Local TD John Curran has criticised the Government’s failure to commit to the promised and planned delivery of Rowlagh Primary Health Care Centre in North Clondalkin in 2019. Deputy Curran was commenting after receiving a Parliamentary reply from the Health Minister regarding available funding in 2019 to ensure work commences on the primary health care centre at Rowlagh in Clondalkin in view of the budgetary overrun on the national children’s hospital.
Deputy Curran received information from the HSE in August 2018 that construction of this Health Centre was to commence in early 2019 with an expected completion in Q3 2020. “This was a very welcome development by the HSE; after years of inaction, planning permission was finally granted in July 2018 to deliver primary health care to the people of North Clondalkin. It’s over 6 years since the Rowlagh Primary Care Centre was first announced under the infrastructure stimulus package with a planned completion date of late 2016. 3 Ministers for Health later and finally the project had planning permission and a commitment from the HSE to begin construction early this year.
I have continued to follow up on this matter with the HSE so that this project is delivered in North Clondalkin in a timely manner, however in my most recent reply from the HSE in relation to Rowlagh Primary Care Centre, recently, it is very unsettling to read that the HSE have not yet developed its Capital Plan for 2019. The HSE Capital Plan will determine the projects that can proceed in 2019 and I am urging the Health Service Executive to continue with its progress on the much needed Rowlagh Primary Care Centre. “The proposed development in Rowlagh when operational will be a significant and substantial health service facility in our community; this is something that I have been campaigning for a long time now.
“The centre is to employ 36 staff and provide a substantial range of primary care services including a GP Clinic, a Nurse managed Clinic, suites for speech & language therapy, occupational and physiotherapy therapy, a dental Clinic, a paediatrics suite and a Mental Health Suite from 9am-6pm every weekday and some out of hour GP services. “Every effort must be made now to ensure that the HSE fulfil its commitment to this centre in 2019 and allow the people of North Clondalkin access to essential Health Care by 2020. “I will persist in highlighting the need for this centre to be completed and operational as soon as possible and that they encounter no unnecessary delays,” he concluded.
