Our new home ‘snatched away’

The organisers of this Saturday’s protest march in Nenagh over the decision of the HSE to repurpose the town’s new community nursing unit to a stepdown facility for patients from the overcrowded University Hospital Limerick (UHL) have urged people to come out in force to support the protest.

Labour's Deputy Alan Kelly has added his voice in urging people to turn out as he established this week that the cost of building the new unit for the elderly is in the region of €24 million.

Among those expected to lead the march will be elderly residents living in obsolete conditions in the only other existing publicly funded nursing home in the town, which has been deemed unfit for purpose.

These residents are currently living in accommodation that has been condemned and threatened with closure by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).

Over 20 elderly residents and staff working in unfit conditions in the decades-old Saint Conlon’s Home at Church Road say they were eagerly looking forward to moving to the currently vacant state-of-the art new building, completed since the end of last year on a site adjacent to the town’s hospital in Tyone.

This week in a statement to The Guardian, the residents have vented their anger and frustration over the move by the HSE to take their “new home” away from them, by announcing it was repurposing the facility as a privately-run temporary stepdown treatment centre for patients from UHL.

Addressing the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, Minister for Older People Mary Butler and the Chief Executive of the HSE, Bernard Gloster in their statement, the residents declare that they have been “totally overlooked and ignored”.

“Over the past few weeks the HSE seem to be communicating through the media instead of to the most important people - the residents of Saint Conlon’s,” they state.

In their statement, the elderly residents go on to say that they were informed in the autumn of last year that they would be moving to their “new home” in the first quarter of the current year.

“But we haven’t moved, and our next of kin have had no communication from the HSE either.

“We are angry and upset at the HSE - and don’t forget HIQA have deemed our current home ‘not fit for purpose for the last ten years’.”

The residents add: “The single rooms are way too small for staff to perform their duties safely as they have to move furniture out before the can administer care.”

CRAMPED CONDITIONS

They say their existing unfit accommodation is in stark contrast to the new 50-bed spacious ensuite rooms in the new building in Tyone. “We use a communal toilet and shower which are outdated.”

“We don’t have visitors in our rooms as they are too small, so we have no privacy to talk openly.

“We feel we have been totally overlooked and ignored. Our new unit addresses all these problems that the old unit can’t.

“We were so excited about the move to the new large, bright unit where we would have our own toilet and shower and a large bedroom with a seating area for our visitors.

“We have waited a long time for the move and have watched in excitement the progress of our new home.

“So, to have it snatched away without any consultation with us, the residents, is a disgrace.

“Our families and the staff are so upset, and this should not be allowed to happen,” concluded the statement, which is signed “concerned residents of Saint Conlon’s Home, Church Road, Nenagh”.

KELLY URGES SUPPORT

Labour Party TD Alan Kelly, who announced the funding for the new unit in Tyone during his time in Government, is urging everyone in the locality to come out at 2.30pm this Saturday to support. “The decision to take away our new community nursing home is disgraceful,” he declared.

“I ensured this facility was funded when I was in Government and it has to be opened for what it was built for. It's actually very worrying that the HSE would even consider doing this to the elderly of North Tipperary. Everyone knows we were screwed in 2009 when Fianna Fáil closed our A&E without proper planning for future of the Mid-West. We are not going to be screwed again with this decision.”

Deputy Kelly added: “I have so many families looking for care for their loved ones and they can't get it. I'd like to ask Stephen Donnelly where are they going to go now? Where will those from Nenagh and surrounds who have worked hard all their lives go now in their final years? I want to thank the trade unions for their support in fighting this decision to privatise public jobs. The HSE have said this will only be until the new 96 bed block of beds is opened in UHL in the first quarter of next year, so why are they even contemplating this?  It makes no sense. I am looking forward to a huge turnout next Saturday as I know this is the biggest issue coming up with people on the doorsteps when canvassing.”

Deputy Kelly also established this week as a result of a question to the Minister for Health in the Dáil that the total cost of the community nursing home at Tyone is in “the region” of €24 million. This does not include the cost of the site, which was acquired by the HSE years ago.

MARCH ROUTE

The ‘Save Nenagh Community Nursing Unit’ Protest March will start this Saturday from outside the residents’ current home in Church Road at 2.30pm.

It will proceed into Summerhill, passing through the centre of the town via Pearse Street, before turning left at the Market Cross and concluding outside the new community nursing home at Tyone where organisers and others are expected to