Nenagh set for protest march

With just days to go to what is expected to be a large protest march in Nenagh, the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has indicated that he is sticking with the hugely controversial HSE plan to repurpose the town’s new €24 million 50-bed community nursing home to a privately run stepdown facility to care for patients from the overcrowded University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

A fresh row has broken out as unions representing staff of the new community nursing unit at Tyone hotly dispute an assertion by the Minister that the HSE’s Chief Executive Officer in the Mid-West, Sandra Broderick, has met with staff and union representatives in relation to the issue. Mark Quinn of SIPTU’s Health Division said that at no time did the HSE consult with unions or families of elderly people due to move into the new facility before announcing that it was to be repurposed to cater as a temporary privately run stepdown facility for patients from UHL.

“We take great exception to Minister Donnelly outlining that there was consultation with the trade unions or resident families as this quite simply did not happen,” said Mr Quinn.

He revealed that the trade unions have referred the matter to the Workplace Relations Commission as the HSE was “in breach” of the Information and Consultation Act 2006 and national agreements governing service delivery options within the public sector.

Among elderly people who were due to move into the new community nursing unit were over 20 residents of the decades-old Saint Conlon’s Home in Church Road in the town.

This is the only other existing publicly run community care home in the town. It has been condemned by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) which says it is not fit for purpose.

Anna Treacy, the SIPTU Shop Steward in Saint Conlon’s, said both the residents and staff in the home were “furious” over a claim by Minister Donnelly that the HSE’s Chief Officer in the Mid-West Sandra Broderick had met with them.

“We never met with her and to date the HSE have not had any engagement with residents’ families,” said Ms Treacy.

In a letter to Minister Donnolly and the Taoiseach Simon Harris, Ms Treacy said that staff and  residents in St Conlon’s have waited ten years for their new home at Tyone. She said there were also many other elderly people in the community that were in need of community nursing home care.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Ms Treacy said the first residents and staff learned of the HSE’s controversial plan was on social media.

She said the new community nursing unit at Tyone was now being repurposed to serve as a stepdown unit for patients from UHL because of overcrowding in the hospital caused by downgrading of other hospitals in the region such as in Nenagh and Ennis.

Ms Treacy predicted that thousands of people would turn up this Saturday to take part in the protest march “to stop this madness” of repurposing the new Nenagh unit.

“Stealing 50 elderly beds from this community is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Ms Treacy, by way of explaining why people are about to take to the streets of the town.

In correspondence on the issue with local Labour Party TD Alan Kelly, Minister Donnelly gave no indication that the HSE was going to back down on its controversial plan despite the pressure from within the community.

The Health Minister informed Deputy Kelly that in order to ease significant pressures at UHL, a decision has been made to utilise the new Nenagh Community Nursing Unit as a privately run stepdown facility for patients from the Limerick hospital on an interim basis.

Minister Donnelly said the new Community Nursing Unit (CNU) at Tyone will be operated as a privately run stepdown facility for UHL pending the completion of construction of the first of two new 96-bed blocks at UHL.

The minister has informed Deputy Kelly that it was intended that the situation would be reviewed within one year of the new Nenagh facility becoming operational as a stepdown facility.

The Nenagh building would then - after a twelve to eighteen month period - be used for the purposes for with it was originally built - to provide long-term residential care services for older people.