Hospital to close unit for elderly

A 24-bed unit for elderly patients is to close at Merlin Park Regional Hospital in Galway as part of the Health Service Executive…

A 24-bed unit for elderly patients is to close at Merlin Park Regional Hospital in Galway as part of the Health Service Executive's ongoing drive to cut costs.

The beds in the unit were designated specially for the rehabilitation of stroke patients.

The HSE now plans to move these patients to other units on the hospital campus where there are vacant beds.

A HSE spokeswoman claimed that the move would have "no impact on patient care" and that it was an attempt to make the best use of resources. "Services and therapies which people have been provided with at unit 4 will be continued at other units at Merlin Park hospital," she said.

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However, the consultant geriatrician, Prof Des O'Neill, who is chairman of the Irish Gerontological Society, said last night it was very troubling that when cuts were being made it was the older people's unit that suffered first. "It will inevitably lead to a diminution in their care," he said.

He added that the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society, which is meeting in Frankfurt, was considering sending a letter of protest to Minister for Health Mary Harney.

Meanwhile, a surgical ward with 17 beds which was closed at Limerick Regional Hospital last weekend was due to reopen on Monday, but it remains closed.

"It was due to reopen on Monday to cope with renewed demand for beds, but nursing management declared they did not have the necessary staff to do so," a HSE spokesman said.

The hospital, like all others, is unable to recruit extra agency nurses, as an outright ban on recruitment was put in place by the HSE earlier this month to try to overcome its €245 million deficit. But the HSE in the mid-west claims that there are already enough nurses in the hospital - with 700 on the payroll - to reopen the ward. It has instructed nurses to reopen it.

Mary Fogarty, the INO representative in the area, said the difficulty in complying with such an order was that it would make staffing levels in other areas unsafe.