Oireachtas Committee requests HSE for reports that led to decision to close Carrick-on-Suir hospital

An Oireachtas committee has requested the HSE to submit to it any reports its decision to close Carrick-on-Suir’s St Brigid’s District Hospital were based on along with the minutes of meetings where the closure was discussed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Petitions Chairman Deputy Martin Browne from Cashel made the request to HSE senior managers at the conclusion of a two and a half hour hearing in Leinster House last Thursday during which they were quizzed by TDs and senators on why the hospital was closed in 2020.

South East Community Healthcare Chief Officer Kate Killeen-White, who headed a team of four HSE managers at the hearing, outlined to the committee the reasons the HSE deemed the hospital premises unsuitable to safely reopen as a short-stay inpatient respite, convalescent and palliative care facility in 2020.

Deputy Browne and fellow Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath criticised the case put forward by the HSE for closing the hospital as based on “opinion”.

They called on the HSE to produce whatever reports were prepared on which it based its decisions not to reopen the hospital and not to build an extension to resolve its structural shortcomings.

“I propose that ye come back with consultants and engineers’ reports that say where the decision was made because we haven’t got them so far. Everything is just opinion. I could have an opinion on Dublin Airport’s runway but that doesn’t mean I am able to run the airport,” the Sinn Féin TD told the HSE managers.

Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill proposed that minutes of HSE meetings at which the closure of the hospital were discussed also be submitted to the Committee. The proposal was seconded.

Deputy Browne told The Nationalist that if the Petitions Committee is not happy with what the HSE comes back with, it may call the HSE back before the Committee again.

Save St Brigid’s Hospital Action Group representatives attended the hearing, which took place three weeks after two of its members made a submission before the Petitions Committee and appealed for the hospital to be reopened citing the huge impact of its loss on the people of the town and surrounding areas.

The Action Group staged a protest march in Carrick-on-Suir on Monday, February 6 ahead of the resumption of the Committee’s deliberations that were prompted by a petition of over 11,000 signatures gathered by the campaign group and presented to Minister of State for Older People Mary Butler in September 2021.

At last Thursday’s hearing, HSE Estates Manager Ciarán Ruane confirmed the HSE never got to a stage of producing drawings for an extension to St Brigid’s or coming up with costings on how much it would cost to build an extension.

“We never really got to a stage of getting costings of what we needed to do to build. Everytime we went to look at it, there was so much to do to bring it to a safe standard,” he explained.

He said the most cost effective solution and to provide long-term Covid infection control standards was to build a new hospital on a green field site, like what was being done with St Anthony’s in Clonmel.

Deputies Browne and McGrath asked why if St Brigid’s location on a flood plain was cited for not building an extension, that the new Primary Care Centre was built on the same site?

Mr Ruane explained the site’s position on a flood plain had been an issue for the Primary Care Centre and late in the day they had to raise its floor level by one metre.

He estimated for an extension to St Brigid’s they would have to raise the floor level by about one foot. He said it would be very difficult to connect the new extension with the existing building in a healthcare facility like this.

Deputies Browne and McGrath rejected this contention and argued there were cases of old healthcare buildings being connected to new extensions all over the country.

Responding to Senator Craughwell, Mr Ruane said he had no evidence of flooding happening on the site of St Brigid’s but pointed out there were places that flooded in the past few years where there was no history of past flooding.

Deputy McGrath, meanwhile, cited the upgrade of St Theresa’s Hospital in Clogheen as an example of what should have been done with St Brigid’s. It was now a “tremendous place”, he said.

He also insisted the HIQA reports on St Brigid’s Hospital never concluded the building was “not fit for purpose” and he rejected the HSE’s assertion that a 2019 fire report on the hospital raised health and safety issues.

Deputy Browne and Senator Gerard Craughwell took issue with the HSE for citing the lack of space in the five-bed wards when the number of beds in the wards was reduced to four before its closure.

Deputy Cahill said Carrick people accepted the hospital would have to cater for a smaller number of patients. He believed no attempt was made by the HSE to put an argument in place for achieving this.

Deputy Browne also noted the HSE’s statement to the hearing never mentioned the width of the corridors. This had been “thrown out there now and again” as a reason for closing the hospital. He asked where was the engineers’ report determining the corridors were too narrow and that it would be a massive expense to widen them.

Ms Killeen-White replied it was obvious from a plan of the building that the main corridor wasn’t wide enough and didn’t allow for the social distancing required for preventing Covid.

“There were challenges with that and associated with evacuating patients particularly if there was a fire. It’s unfortunate that this decision had to be made. It’s very, very difficult for the community but we do have to deliver safe and effective care. We do have to consider the premises staff are working in. It was simply a case the building delivered too many challenges.”

Responding to Deputy Emer Higgins, she estimated the HSE would have had to halve the beds from 16 to 8 and perhaps less to reopen the hospital. She indicated there would have been viability issues with operating a hospital of that size.

She said the HIQA reports would be sent and the decision was also based on reports from the HSE’s estates section, health and fire regulations and Covid infection prevention guidelines.