‘We fear we will not get our new home back’, say nurses
A staff member of Saint Conlon's nursing home in Nenagh told last Saturday's protest march in the town that she and her colleagues were fearful that if the HSE was allowed press ahead with its plan to repurpose Nenagh's new community nursing unit, it would never be used for the purposes for which it was build.
“Who will assure us that if our new unit is taken from us that it will be handed back?” asked nurse Maura Brennan, addressing the crowd of protesters who had gathered after the march outside the locked entrance gates to the €24 million currently vacant new unit at Tyone.
“The answer is nobody,” she declared, to applause and cheers from the crowd.
Ms Brennan, standing accompanied by nurse colleagues on a trailer used as a makeshift stage, said the 21 residents and staff at the half-century-year old Saint Conlon's, which has been declared unfit for purpose by the Health Information and Quality Authority, desperately needed to move into the new state-of-the art home and not have it repurposed on a temporary basis as a stepdown facility for patients from University Hospital Limerick.
Of that move by the HSE and the Department of Health to press ahead with their plan to use the new unit as a temporary and privately-run stepdown centre for UHL until such time as more beds become available at the Limerick hospital, Ms Brennan declared: “We are here today to say no. Enough is enough. This is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem.”
Ms Brennan told protesters that Saint Conlon's was full and being forced to turn away elderly people who desperately needed residential care accommodation and respite for families looking after loved ones.
“We get numerous respite requests daily and weekly and unfortunately we cannot facilitate them all because the rooms in Saint Conlon's are too small.
“We are currently at full capacity for long-term care and there is an extensive waiting list,”Ms Brennan revealed.
She said that if they had access to the new currently vacant community nursing home at Tyone there would be no difficulty in accommodating people.
OPPOSITION
A carer at Saint Conlon's, Philip Brett, alluded to the elderly people currently in the care of Saint Conlon's who attended the protest in wheelchairs- Jimmy Sherlock, Martin Hogan, Willie Ryan and Mary Flannery.
Mr Brett said: “Our residents have already gone through the hardships. We have what we have today because of them. It is for that reason that we are here and we cannot allow this decision to go ahead.”
Anna Treacy, SIPTU shop steward at Saint Conlon's, told protesters: “We have been waiting ten years for this new unit. Saint Conlon's has been deemed not fit for purpose for the last 13 years.
“If we lose this new facility we will have only 21 long-term beds for this entire community and surrounding areas. That's nowhere near enough. The new unit is our future, and our residents deserve this facility.”
outdated building
Ms Treacy said staff in Saint Conlon's were working in an outdated building that was built in the 1970s for elderly people who were mobile. “The bedrooms are the same size as a box-room in any three-bedroom home. There are no bathrooms, just a sink and a tiny built-in wardrobe.”
She said staff had to move furniture out of the tiny rooms to provide care residents.
“It's a health and safety issue; we have all had injuries, and we are working in unsafe conditions.”
If they were allowed move to the new unit they would have state-of-the-art facilities that both residents, their families and staff deserved.
SIPTU official Mark Quinn said the public sector unions representing staff at Saint Conlon's were steadfastly opposed the decision to repurpose the new community nursing unit.
Mr Quinn said the issue had been referred to the Workplace Relations Commission.
“We believe the decisions that were made were in breach of legislation.
“An investigator has been appointed to investigate the breach,” he said.
“We are going to use everything in our industrial relations power to reverse this decision.”