HSE closes Loughloe House as residents, families object

FIVE RESIDENTS in a Health Service Executive nursing home in Westmeath have been told they have until tomorrow to vacate it.

The remaining staff working in Loughloe House, Athlone, will take up new posts elsewhere next Monday, the HSE has said.

The public nursing home, which had accommodated 39 residents, was criticised in an inspection report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa). Compiled following a visit to the home in February, the report listed 37 improvements needed to bring the home up to standard.

Although the report did not recommend closure and most of the improvements were implemented, the HSE decided to shut the home down. The majority of its residents have been transferred to other nursing homes, including St Vincent’s Care Centre, also in Athlone.

St Vincent’s was also the subject of a Hiqa inspection report this year. Inspectors raised concerns there about issues including the care and safety of residents and inadequate staffing levels and listed 45 improvements required to bring it up to standard.

Kay Munnelly said her mother Mary Durcan (90), who is a resident at Loughloe House, considered the place her home. She had got a letter on Monday from the HSE stating residents would have to be transferred. The only real option being offered was to move to St Vincent’s, where there were wards on two levels instead of single or double rooms, she said.

She was very concerned for another resident, Jimmy Reilly, who had been 10 years in the home and had kennels on the grounds for his two dogs, which were “his life”.

He could sit on the veranda and be with his dogs all day, she said, but if he was moved to St Vincent’s, he would be on the second floor and the dogs, if they moved with him, would be out of reach.

The improvements needed at Loughloe House had almost all been put in place, Ms Munnelly said, and there was no reason why it could not be kept open and the empty beds used to provide respite care. They had been promised respite beds in the area by Minister for Health Mary Harney, but these had not been delivered.

The families of the remaining residents were very united, she added, and they would hold a candlelit vigil tomorrow evening at the home. They did not intend to agree to residents being moved.

Fine Gael Senator Nicky McFadden said the HSE decision to move the remaining residents was “a modern-day eviction” and she accused the executive of hiding behind Hiqa to implement a cutback.

It had already taken the pictures from the walls, removed furniture and had begun dismantling the oratory, Ms McFadden added.

There had been an undertaking that no one would be forced to move, but residents were under pressure to agree. She called on Ms Harney to debate the matter in the Seanad.

Local Sinn Féin councillor Paul Hogan said the HSE was “causing serious stress and psychological torture” to the residents.

“The HSE has no shame,” he said, “evicting five elderly residents from their home less than two weeks before Christmas.”

A spokeswoman for the HSE said it was proceeding with the closure and would begin the final transfer of the five remaining residents tomorrow. It had worked for six months with residents and their families “to facilitate a comfortable and safe move to alternative accommodation of their choice”.

They could be transferred to St Vincent’s or a private nursing home or given a care package in their own homes. HSE management was still available to meet residents and their relatives “individually” to discuss these options.

“It must be stressed that the HSE took the decision to close Loughloe House to protect the health and welfare of the residents,” the spokeswoman said.