Public meeting this Friday on plans for Nenagh's new care home

A PUBLIC meeting is to take place in the Scouts Hall in Nenagh on this Friday evening, Augsut 2, to update the community on plans by a private company to take over the running of the town’s new €24 million community nursing unit and run it instead as a stepdown facility for patients who will be transferred there from the overcrowded University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

News of the imminent meeting comes as local Labour Party TD Alan Kelly revealed this week that approximately half the rehab beds in the Hospital of the Assumption in Thurles - just over 20 miles away from Nenagh - are empty.

This situation has arisen because the HSE have not provided sufficient staff to make the empty beds in the Thurles hospital available to patients, says Mr Kelly.

‘CRAZY AND BIZARRE’

“This is a crazy situation as these beds are so badly needed,” said the Labour Party TD, who revealed that he has been contacted by many families who are seeking his help to get their loved ones placements in the Hospital of the Assumption.

“What’s even more bizarre,” says Deputy Kelly, “is that while the beds in Thurles are lying empty, the HSE are continuing with their plan to take away our Community Nursing Home in Nenagh and use it as a step down facility for rehab for people coming from UHL.”

He said leaving half the beds empty in the Thurles hospital while depriving people in Nenagh and surrounds of urgently needed long-term residential community nursing care was “beyond bizarre and contradictory”.

The state-of-the-art Tyone facility, built on a site beside the hospital, was funded by the State, which had planned initially to use it as a home to accommodate elderly people needing long-term residential nursing care.

The reason for building the new home was because the only other publicly run nursing home in the town - Saint Conlon’s in Church Road - has been deemed unfit for purpose by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), which has threatened to close it down.

CONTROVERSY

Controversy was sparked earlier this year when the HSE, with the support of the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, decided to temporarily repurpose the use of the new home as a step down facility to cater for patients recovering after treatment in the overcrowded UHL.

That decision sparked fury among many people from Nenagh and surrounds who took to the streets last May in public protest to voice their opposition to the move.

However, the HSE and the minister are pressing ahead with their plan to repurpose the new home and have appointed a private company specialising in health care, Bartra Property Company, to operate the home as a stepdown facility for patients referred there from UHL.

PUBLIC MEETING

Anna Treacy, a SIPTU shop steward representing staff at Saint Conlon’s Home, told this newspaper that she was organising this Friday’s public meeting to update the community on the current position.

Ms Treacy has expressed fears that the new home may not be used as a nursing home to serve the needs of the community for up to five years.

These fears come despite assurances from the minister and local TDs supporting the government that the new home in Tyone will be used for the purposes for which it was built - as a community nursing home - once 96 new beds are open at UHL by June 2025.

However, Ms Treacy’s fears that the new home will operate  as a privately-run step down facility for UHL for up to five years have been echoed in questions being asked by Deputy Kelly.

“How,” he asks, “does it make sense to bring in a private company, refit the building, try and staff it privately and end up in the Labour Court with the trade unions when it supposedly only going to be used for short number of months?”

Ms Treacy has invited local Oireachtas members, councillors and senior HSE officials to this Friday’s meeting to give those attending an update on the situation.

The meeting in the Scouts Hall starts at 6pm and all are invited to attend.