Hermitage extension plans as hospital nears full capacity

SDCC’s Planning Department has received an application from Hermitage Clinic Unlimited for the extension of the existing hospital and clinic to provide an additional 5,445sqm of clinical space.

The site is located within the grounds of Blackrock Health Hermitage Clinic on the Old Lucan Road, an established, permitted hospital campus which has operated for over 20 years.

It is a 112-bed private hospital with a strategically important healthcare facility serving the greater Dublin area, as well as the Midlands, and patients nationwide.

The single-storey extensions will be located within the existing central courtyard, to the southern side of the existing hospital building and will deliver a new catheter lab suite, an extension to the existing operating theatre department, staff changing facilities, a new emergency department and an expanded intensive care unit.

According to the planning report, the facility “provides advanced medical, surgical, and radiotherapy services supported by modern technology.”

The planning report notes that the hospital is “currently operating at or close to full capacity, with sustained increases in demand and activity across all clinical disciplines,” with more than 250,000 patients attending the consultants’ rooms in 2025.

The hospital is limited in its capacity to provide services, as theatres are operating at or near full capacity, as well as insufficient clinical space for new consultants and limited access to labs and reliance on mobile units.

In terms of car parking, the proposal also includes the retention of an existing car park and provision of additional space, resulting in 675 permanent car parking spaces, 76 temporary spaces and 77 cycle parking spaces.

Also included in the plans is the provision of new plant areas, which will cover approximately 1,570sqm at roof level above the proposed extension and beside the existing plant.

A new ESB substation and generator compound will also be provided, as well as landscaping and planting work, reprofiling of the levels across the site, a new pedestrian route to the existing gate on the Lucan Road / N4 to provide additional access to the campus, revised vehicular layout across the site and all other associated works and services provision to enable the development.

The Planning report states that this hospital supports patients across multiple specialities, namely Orthopaedics, Gynaecology, General Surgery and General Internal Medicine via direct access, NTPF and Access to Care initiatives and shares consultants with St James’s Hospital, Tallaght University Hospital and Connolly Hospital.

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