THE OPERATOR of a private hospital due to open next week has raised about €7 million of the total €90 million investment from private individuals within the last 12 months.
Cork Medical Centre, a 75-bed facility backed by Blackrock Clinic co-founder Dr Joseph Sheehan, will begin treating patients next week, making it the first private hospital to open in the city in more than 90 years.
Sheehan Medical, run by Dr Sheehan and his son James, will operate the hospital, which cost about €90 million to develop.
The company raised the cash through a mixture of debt and equity. Managing director James Sheehan said yesterday that it raised between €6 million and €7 million of the equity from private individuals, who committed sums varying from €500,000 to €1 million.
The investors will not benefit from any tax breaks, as the hospital was conceived just 18 months ago, and does not qualify for the supports available for private medical care.
James Sheehan pointed out yesterday that there was a clear demand for the hospital in the city. The last private hospital to have been built in Cork was Shankiel, which was completed in 1918, while the city’s best-known private facility, the Bons Secours, dates back to 1915.
Sheehan Medical said yesterday there are only two fully private hospitals serving Cork, and just four serving the whole Munster region, which has a population of 1.27 million people.
According to the company’s figures, Munster has a total of 470 private beds and 14 operating theatres. The Cork centre will add a further 75 beds and four theatres.
The Dublin area, which has a similar population to Munster, has eight hospitals with 1,192 beds and 49 operating theatres.
Sheehan Medical borrowed about €30 million, which included €10 million from Siemens Financial Services in London. Siemens provided the equipment for its cardiology and radiology units, and sourced the rest of its fixtures and fittings.
Cork Medical Centre has signed up Aviva Healthcare and is hopeful of signing a deal with the other private-sector insurer, Quinn, shortly.
It is in talks with the State insurer, the VHI, which accounts for about 85 per cent of the insured market in the Republic. The centre is also bidding to become part of the treatment purchase scheme, under which the State pays for public patients to be treated at private facilities.
The centre is housed in a premises at Mahon Point in Cork city built by local developer John Cleary, who originally intended it to be used for commercial purposes. He applied for a change of use a year ago. In total, the design, planning and fit-out took 18 months.
The facility will employ between 290 and 350 full-time staff when it is fully operational.
