Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In Roscrea in County Tipperary one issue overshadows all others, namely, the future of the Dean Maxwell community nursing home in the town. This vital 27-bed elderly care residential home and day facility is dying a slow death. The centre is cherished by the people of Roscrea. The management and staff of the nursing home provide an excellent service for the people of the local community. The level and quality of care are acknowledged and appreciated by the people of Roscrea. The facility is an integral part of the fabric of the local community. It is almost 50 years old and no longer meets HIQA standards. It is therefore under threat of closure in 2021. Roscrea is a community-orientated town and its people have fought passionately to save the Dean Maxwell nursing home to allow elderly members of their community to continue living in the locality with which they are familiar.

The current capital spending plan, introduced in 2016 by the then Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch, did a serious injustice by the omission of the Dean Maxwell nursing home. That five-year service plan, endorsed by the HSE, effectively consigns the centre to lose its 25-bed long-stay unit. The nursing home and the people of Roscrea should not be deprived of its long-stay beds. Traditionally, north Tipperary has had a distribution of long-stay beds between Thurles, Nenagh and Roscrea. We had a new unit built in Thurles and a new unit for St. Conlon's in Nenagh is being progressed. The Dean Maxwell home should not be left behind. I request the Taoiseach to ensure the current flawed HSE service plan is reviewed, with the purpose of designing and building a new facility for the Dean Maxwell nursing home in Roscrea.

The Dean Maxwell home is being downgraded step by step and slowly but gradually is moving towards closure, one which is unwritten and by stealth. With the bare minimum of maintenance over the past five years, the HSE knows full well that HIQA will intervene and deem it unfit for purpose. The HSE is a casual bystander awaiting the inevitability of closure. It has done absolutely nothing to offer an alternative solution and seems happy to run down the clock. It is abundantly clear that it is HSE policy to transfer long-stay beds from Roscrea to Nenagh. The blinkered attitude of the estates management section of the HSE towards Roscrea was confirmed by its dismissive response to a proposal to provide alternative accommodation in Roscrea. In a project that required no HSE capital funding, the developer of the primary care centre in Roscrea agreed to adapt plans to incorporate on the same site a purpose-built 40-bed nursing home. This would operate on a lease-back agreement to be managed and run by the HSE. With unprofessional haste and without due consideration, the HSE rejected the proposal. It is unwilling and unable to provide a credible reason for its decision.

As the clock ticks for the Dean Maxwell nursing home, the HSE has failed to guarantee the future of elderly care in Roscrea. I have raised this matter in private with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly. I request their intervention to find a sensible, practical solution to retain the Dean Maxwell home in Roscrea.

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