Families seek clarity on HSE's plan to use nursing home as hospital step-down facility

The plan leaves residents of an older nursing home, St Conlon’s, in limbo following criticism of the “dated” building by the Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa).

Bríd Slattery’s 81-year-old father, a retired farmer and teacher, is among those affected.

Ms Slattery was shocked to read of the plans on social media.

“We didn’t get any information,” she said.

There should have been some consultation, it’s like they ignored the voice of the elderly themselves. 

"And especially for someone like my father with dementia, he needs somebody to communicate on his behalf and there was no letters or communication with myself or any of my family.”

She added: “There’s been meetings held, preparing families for the transfer, I’ve attended two.”

Her fear now is that the unit may never become a nursing home.

“There is nothing very temporary about anything like this, it easily becomes a permanent fixture.”

Eamonn Donnellan’s father, aged 90, a patient in Nenagh Hospital, was listed for transfer to the new unit.

“We had applied for the Fair Deal and all that, everything was ready to go,” he said.

His father, a retired member of the Defence Forces, had been supported at home until recently after having a stroke at 88.

“The hospital are not going to let him home, so we really were relying on getting that place open,” he said.

“I was there on Tuesday looking around, it just makes no sense.

All I want is what is already there, that it’s used for what it was actually built for.

He acknowledged overcrowding concerns, saying when his mother went to UHL “they had no beds for her” but does not see this as a fair solution.

HSE officials only met staff yesterday to discuss the plans.

Seamus Morris, independent councillor in Nenagh, would like HSE chief Bernard Gloster to meet local politicians on the issue.

“The current St Conlon’s is under threat of closure by Hiqa, that’s why the new one was built,” he said.

“So how can someone in the HSE decide they are taking this nursing home and renting it out to a private company?”

The Midwest Hospital Campaign has long called for solutions to overcrowding, but member Dr Conor Reidy said this is not the answer.

“The biggest fear here now is that this building will never come back to what it was originally purposed for,” he said.

“There is enormous anger here, that these beds have been snatched away.”

Labour TD Alan Kelly also criticised the move earlier this week.

The HSE said the plan is an interim measure only and is linked to “significant pressures” facing UHL.