THE HIGH Court has dismissed a challenge by two community groups to the HSE’s planned closure of an inpatient psychiatric unit at South Tipperary General Hospital, with the patients affected to be transferred to Kilkenny.
Save Our Acute Hospital Services Ltd and the Cashel Action Committee had sued the Minister for Health, the State and HSE to prevent closure of the 29-bed St Michael’s acute psychiatric inpatient unit at the Clonmel-based hospital.
It was claimed that the proposed closure and transfer breached a 1996 agreement, signed by the then minister for health Michael Noonan, providing for acute hospital services for south Tipperary to be located in Clonmel.
Dismissing the claims yesterday, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said he was satisfied the defendants were not bound under the 1996 agreement to keep the unit open.
The groups, set up by local people to protect hospital services in south Tipperary, had sued after it was announced the unit would be closed by the end of last month, with patients transferring to St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny.
The groups claimed the move would cause irreparable harm and hardship to patients, their families and those working in the local mental health services.
They said some of the most vulnerable people in society would be affected.
The HSE denied breaching the 1996 agreement, and claimed the closure was part of the Government’s A Vision for Change programme aimed at a more community-based mental health service.