THE CENTRAL MENTAL Hospital is to be moved to a site in north Dublin, the Minister for Health has confirmed.
A new 120-bed hospital is to be built at Portrane as part of a campus which will also house a 10-bed child and adolescent forensic mental health unit and a 10-bed disability forensic mental health unit.
The government had indicated that it would set aside money for the replacement of the hospital in capital expenditure plans revealed last November.
A report into conditions in the Central Mental Hospital at Dundrum last year said that it “unsuitable” and that the level of dirt in some units was “inexcusable”.
The HSE has sought expressions of interest for the design team and said that work on the design should commence in the coming months.
The hospital had been due to be moved to the planned prison site at Thornton Hall in north Dublin before the plan was deferred by the current government. Campaigners had criticised the plan to house the hospital on the same grounds as the prison.
Construction on the new hospital is planned to start in 2014 with the facility due to be operational by 2016.
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