Tipperary TD Alan Kelly has hit out sharply at plans to use a new Community Nursing Unit(CNU) in Nenagh to provide step down beds for University Hospital Limerick. The proposal was revealed by Tipperary TD Michael Lowry on Friday who confirmed yesterday that the management at UHL submitted the proposal to the Department of Health. The 50 bed unit in Nenagh was completed last year but so far no staff or residents from St Conlon’s Nursing Home have moved into the facility.
Deputy Kelly says the proposal is a disgrace and says he will oppose the plan. The Labour TD accepts that the overcrowding situation in UHL is wrong but says two wrongs don’t make a right and depriving elderly people and their families from Nenagh and surrounds of 50 nursing beds is a disgrace. Deputy Kelly says staff in St Conlons are upset to hear the news and also called out HIQA who have supported the case for an upgrade of St Conlon’s nursing home building.
Deputy Kelly is angry that Nenagh hospital lost its A&E & ICU in the 2009 reconfiguration of Health Services in the Mid West which was not delivered as planned and says the idea that a private health care company might run the new building as a step down/respite facility is unacceptable as it effectively throws away money on a private ‘for profit’ company by outsourcing HSE jobs.
The only information in the public domain about the proposal is a Press Release from Tipperary Regional Independent TD Michael Lowry. UHL Group says it has no comment to make and the HSE and Department of Health have also failed to respond to enquiries. There are 516 admitted patients on trolleys today including 89 in UHL.
