This article is from page 11 of the 2013-01-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THE future viability of smaller nursing homes in Clare was called into question in January following the leaking of plans by the government to move a number of publiclyowned nursing homes into semi-private ownership.
Fears were raised that the Minister for Health, James Reilly (FG) planned to effectively force smaller nursing homes, with under 50 beds, into funding their own existence and not be grant aided each year by HSE funds.
This news prompted fears for homes such Ennistymon and Ra- heen, which have 22 and 33 beds respectively, that the local communities would be forced to take over the running of nursing home units from the HSE.
The news came fast after a number of drastic cuts in the number of HSE nursing home beds in the county in recent years.
St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis has borne the brunt of these cutbacks, with bed numbers slashed from 270 down to the current number of 166 over the past three years.
And a Government commitment to close up to 900 community nursing home beds over the course of the year led to fears being expressed that a number of nursing homes in the county could be closed, forcing them down the privatisation route as the only feasible way to keep their doors open.
Regional Health Forum West member, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) blasted any privatisation plans, saying that “the onus is on the Government to keep as many community care beds as possible”.
“A level of service has to be maintained,” he says, “and you can’t compromise on that. It will be hard for the public to support privatisation when that means beds will be about making profit.”
Speaking at the time, Tomsie O’Sullivan of the Friends of Ennistymon Hospital, said that many local community groups would not be able to cope if the proposals put forward by the health minister lead to a greater funding burden being placed on the local community.
“There is not a hope that we would be able to cope [if the recommendations from Minister O’Reilly come into force].
“We are in ongoing talks with HSE West in relation to the future of Ennistymon Community Hospital,” he said in January.
“The cutbacks will make it very difficult but we have been in very difficult situations before. And the way that we got out of those situations was through communication from all sides.”