A DELEGATION of health professionals is to meet with the Minister responsible for mental health services in a bid to force a U-turn on the scheduled closure of a 49-bed acute psychiatric unit.
The HSE confirmed during the summer that St Michael’s unit in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, will shut early next year, with inpatient services to be transferred to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Ennis and St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny.
However, consultant psychiatrists and GPs who work in and with St Michael’s have strongly opposed the plan and argued that, even with a planned improvement in home-based and community-based mental-health services, there will remain a need for acute inpatient hospital beds in Clonmel to serve the wider area.
Following a public meeting last week attended by hospital service-users and their families, representatives are now seeking a meeting with Minister of State Kathleen Lynch to discuss their campaign and plead with her to change her mind on the closure, which she publicly backed following the HSE’s decision in May.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Alan Moore, whose recent resignation from the HSE was “strongly influenced” by the closure decision and who has led moves to keep the unit open, said there will be further meetings in the weeks ahead.