Thousands took part in a demonstration in Nenagh on Saturday by people following the decision by the HSE and the Department of Health to use a new 50-bed community nursing home as a temporary stepdown facility to alleviate the overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick.
The new unit had been intended as a replacement long-term care facility for residents of St Conlon's nursing home in the town, which the Health Investigation and Quality Authority has deemed not fit for purpose for the just over 20 residents who live there.
Residents and their families had anticipated they would be moved to the new facility shortly, until a decision in recent months by the HSE to use the beds at the facility to alleviate the significant congestion problems at the regions only acute hospital UHL.
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 step-down facility to care for patients from the overcrowded UHL.
The HSE and the Department of Health said it was decided to use the new Nenagh community nursing unit building as a step-down sub-acute and rehabilitation facility on an interim and temporary basis, to be run by a private operator, until the new unit can be fully staffed.
This will ensure maximum use of all available bed capacity across the region, for a period of 12 months when it will be reviewed, the HSE said.
However, the decision has caused widespread anger and dismay in the town, who say the elderly and vulnerable residents of St Conlon's were looking forward to and had expected to be housed in the new nursing home very quickly.
Thousands of people marched through the town from St Conlon's community nursing home to the new facility located beside Nenagh Hospital.
They called on Minister for Health Stephan Donnelly and the HSE to reverse it and to allow the facility to proceed to open for its intended purpose rather than be used over the next year to relieve the overcrowding at UHL.
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