New HSE chief to visit Laois community hospital
The new CEO of the Health Service Executive will visit Abbeyleix Community hospital in Laois.
Laois Offaly Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley said that the new HSE chief Bernard Gloster is to visit Abbeyleix community hospital.
The hospital was averted from closure a decade ago after a local public outcry, and now provides elderly stepdown and daycare services, with renovation works still underway.
The local TD said he spoke to the HSE chief about it, pressing its importance.
“I have engaged with the new CEO of the HSE since his appointment to the position in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, Mr Gloster and his senior management team were before the Public Accounts Committee. I raised the matter of Abbeyleix with him and the importance of having the full capacity of the Hospital utilised.’’
“I used the occasion to highlight to him the need for the second side of the Hospital (side A) to be re-opened for use as a step-down facility for patients being discharged from Portlaoise Hospital. There is an urgent need for these beds to free up desperately needed space in Portlaoise.
“The latest up to date position on the step-down beds which I received from his management team is, that the remedial works are to be completed in July. I am also informed that 'The appointment of the Community Consultant Geriatrician along with nursing support staff is being actively progressed at present'.”
“Since his appearance at the Public Accounts Committee, I have discussed with Bernard Gloster the potential for the Abbeyleix Hospital site to be utilised as a community care hub.
“While the reopening of the Day-Care centre within the Hospital is positive, what is really needed is a new day-care building on site that would also accommodate additional primary care services.
“The site in Abbeyleix has enormous potential due to it being over four acres in size, given its prime location adjacent to the centre of Abbeyleix town.
“I have impressed on Bernard Gloster that he should visit the site and meet with staff and he has informed me in the last few days that he intends to do so in the near future.”
The HSE had announced it would close the community hospital in 2010, but scrapped the plan after elderly residents took them to court, and the public took to the streets in a protest march.
In a big turnaround, the hospital is now being repurposed as a 'step down' facility, to send people who are discharged from Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise, but still need some nursing care. Works are underway.
More recently, the HSE gave into local pressure and reopened a daycare unit for the elderly, three years after it closed at the start of the pandemic. According to Dep Stanley, they had considered moving it elsewhere. They are now considering building a new daycare standalone building on the large site.