The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív TD, today officially opened two new health facilities in North Conamara between counties Galway and Mayo. Corr na Móna Primary Care Centre and Clonbur Primary Care Centre are part of the Oughterard / Clonbur Primary Care Team, which aims to provide accessible, high quality healthcare that meets the specific needs of the local population.
Public health nursing and General Practitioner services are available on a fulltime basis in both centres. The health centres in Corr na Móna and An Fhairche (Clonbur) also have the facilities to provide services including community welfare, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, dietetics and podiatry, as well as mental health and psychiatric services. Both of the centres accommodate WESTDOC out-of-hours GP services too. In addition, Clonbur Primary Care Centre houses the local Daycare Centre, offering supports such as meals on wheels to older people in the community.
Minister Ó Cuív said:
“This is a wonderful day for Conamara, as these official openings mark the culmination of years of hard work, determination and cooperation. Both of these health centres are proof of how much can be achieved when people in the local community and state agencies work together with a clear, common goal.
“I know that the Corr na Móna centre was a real homegrown and local project. Set in motion in the late 1990s by the Coiste Pobail and primarily, by their Cathaoirleach Áine Breathnach, the building was designed by a local architect, Roger Laundon and constructed by Cill Bhríde Teoranta, a local contractor. This superb facility was completed within budget at a total cost of €425,000, including CLÁR funding of over €140,000 from my Department.
“The primary care centre in An Fhairche involved an extension and refurbishment of the original premises and was originally initiated by Dr. Joe Curran and Fr. Michael Flannery and the late Maura Halloran and the late Fr. Stephen Ludden, may they rest in peace, of the Clonbur Social Services/North Conamara Voluntary Housing Association. Again, a local contractor, Wishbone Construction, carried out the works. I am delighted that my Department was able to provide funding support of over €165,000 from CLÁR for this centre, and if you look at the magnificent facilities here and the difference they make to the day-to-day lives of people in the community, I am sure that you will agree that the HSE investment of €1.2m in the Clonbur area has been money very well spent.
“Great credit and thanks are owed to Sheila Reilly and Michael McDonagh of the HSE, who kept a close watch on each of these projects through the entire planning and construction processes and I hope they feel a great sense of pride when they see the very tangible results of what their efforts have achieved, as should everyone who has been involved in these two primary care centres from the beginning.
“In the recent severe weather, we all saw just how important it is to have a good community network available, particularly for those living in isolated areas. The multi-disciplinary, community focus of these centres makes them particularly valuable to the people of Corr na Móna and An Fhairche, and I am therefore delighted today to declare them officially open.”