Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath raised the ongoing delay in delivering the promised Community Nursing Unit in Cashel with Minister Mary Butler in the Dáil yesterday.
Deputy McGrath claims the site at St Patrick’s hospital is adequate for the unit and questions why the HSE are seeking an alternative site. The planning application was to be submitted in 2019. Minister Butler offered a strong reassurance that the unit will be delivered as it is included in the HSE Delivery Plan. The HSE is to construct 90 such units across the country and the Minister says 48 of these are now completed. The Dáil heard that the HSE Estates office continues to investigate if land it owns at Palmers Hill on the north side of Cashel is suitable for the CNU. Minister Butler committed to update the TD when any progress is made.
The unit under construction in Clonmel is to be completed by the end of the year while the unit completed in Nenagh in 2023 is to be used as a step down bed facility for patients from University Hospital Limerick(UHL) for at least a year due to overcrowding at UHL. As bed capacity in UHL increases due to construction projects the 50 room Nenagh CNU is to be released for it’s intended use for long term residential care for residents in the current St Conlan’s Nursing home.
