Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of Clonakilty Community Hospital. The HSE is responsible for the delivery of health and personal social services, including those at facilities like Clonakilty Community Hospital. The hospital, which was built in the 1840s, is situated on the outskirts of Clonakilty in west Cork. In addition to providing long-term care to older people, the hospital historically provided residential care to people whose primary needs arose from social difficulties. The hospital is registered with HIQA for 129 beds for the provision of continuing care, respite care, palliative care and community support to older people in west Cork. Services available to residents include physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. Activities are arranged daily by a mixture of volunteers and paid therapists. Approximately 157 whole-time equivalent staff are based in the hospital. The HSE is in the process of recruiting an additional two health care assistants. This will be completed shortly.

I assure Deputy Murphy O'Mahony that there have been no bed closures and there are no plans to close beds at Clonakilty. That is good news for the Deputy. There has been reduced demand for continuing care beds, however, with up to 20 such beds remaining vacant over the past 12 months. This can be partly attributed to the opening of a number of new private nursing homes in the west Cork area. Over recent winters, a number of empty beds have been made available by social care to acute services to facilitate early discharges during times of peak demand. The beds provided by public nursing homes like Clonakilty Community Hospital are an essential part of our health care infrastructure. Without those beds, many older people would not have access to the care they need. While demand has reduced in recent times at Clonakilty, these beds will be very much needed over the coming years as the number of older people increases in line with demographic trends. Therefore, it is essential that they are put on a sustainable footing and that the fabric of the buildings from which they operate is modernised and improved.

The €385 million capital programme that was announced earlier this year is one of the most comprehensive programmes of investment in public nursing home facilities undertaken by the State. It provides for the replacement and refurbishment of 90 public nursing homes across the country over the next five years. Significant work was undertaken by the HSE to determine the most appropriate scheduling of projects over the five-year period from 2016 to 2021 within the phased provision of funding to achieve compliance and registration with HIQA. The good news for Deputy Murphy O'Mahony is that the plan includes refurbishment works at Clonakilty Community Hospital. It is anticipated that construction works will begin in 2019. They are scheduled to be completed by 2020. When these works are completed, they will ensure the hospital's long and proud tradition will continue well into the future.

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