THOUSANDS PROTESTED in Galway yesterday against the proposed closure of the HSE’s St Francis Nursing Home in the Newcastle area of the city.
The nursing home, which can accommodate 38 residents, is due to be closed from May, which has angered locals, who say the home is a crucial part of the community.
The organiser of the march, local councillor Catherine Connolly, is critical of what she calls a “national policy” of closing down public nursing homes and has called on Minister for Health Dr James Reilly to meet the group.
“Why the Government would want to close a public nursing home that works so well is baffling,” she said..
“Hiqa [Health Information and Quality Authority] have conducted three surveys of the home in the last two years, and each one has been glowing. The only fault they could find was a lack of en suite toilets, but volunteers from Galway have come forward to do that work.”
Ms Connolly, who is also a member of the Western Regional Health Forum, says support from the public is unparalleled for this nursing home, with one in every two adult residents signing a petition to stop its closure.
“More than 24,200 people have signed this petition to keep St Francis open,” she said. “At a time when our hospitals are creaking at the seams, we have 46 people taking up acute care beds in the county’s hospitals that want to get into nursing homes. How does it make sense to close another home?”
Referring to a similar protest in Co Laois last month against the planned closure of the Abbeyleix Community Nursing Unit over funding and staffing issues, Ms Connolly said: “We had a great turnout today, but we want to build on what they did in Abbeyleix. They got a meeting with the minister and we are hopeful that we can also get ourselves in front of him.”
Elderly residents vowing to fight against the proposed closure of the Abbeyleix facility have brought a High Court challenge to the HSE’s “unilateral” and “devastating” decision to close the unit for financial reasons. Mentioned briefly before the High Court on Friday, the court was told that the recent removal of three beds from the unit caused such concern to some elderly residents they were afraid to leave their beds.
Similar closure announcements have been made in respect of the 80-bed St Brigid’s home at Crooksling in Brittas, Co Dublin, and St Brigid’s Hospital, Shaen, Portlaoise. The HSE is also seeking to cut beds in St Vincent’s Hospital in Athy, Co Kildare.
The Minister has said cuts to community nursing units were “unavoidable”, blaming three factors: money, the moratorium on recruitment and the standard of some public facilities.