Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The proposed reduction in the number of beds in the mental health unit in Bantry General Hospital is extremely worrying. The unit provides a vital service for west Cork in treating people in their own locality. Since the news broke, many people have been speaking about the fantastic help they received in the unit including, in some cases, life-saving assistance. I cannot emphasise enough how important these beds are for west Cork. The planned decrease from 18 to 11 beds is due to a finding from the Mental Health Commission concerning the state of the building and physical infrastructure. The HSE legally has to comply with this ruling.

The management has said that if it had the resources for a viable plan to address the issues, it could make a compelling appeal. No one wants to compromise standards and nobody wants the beds to close. We need the Minister of State to intervene immediately in the situation and work with the hospital and the community healthcare organisation management to put a solution in place. This can be resolved by political will. We are looking at a reduction from 18 beds to 11. The average capacity in the mental health unit in Bantry at the moment is generally between 14 and 16. What will happen to the people who are normally in those three to four additional beds? Presumably the first option is that they will be moved to other facilities or places like Carraig Mór. They will be moved out of acute care for all the wrong reasons. If there was a plan like there is in older people's care, for example, that had multi-annual funding, the commission would know something would change down the line. At this point, what are we offering it? There are no solutions so it is going to reduce the number of beds even though we have exactly what we need at the moment. The commission has to do its job and the HSE has to comply. The Government needs to fund this on a multi-annual basis to ensure we can keep those beds.

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