Seanad debates

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

5:00 pm

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator McFadden for raising this issue which is obviously a sensitive one for the residents and their families. The Government is committed to supporting people to live in dignity and independence in their homes and communities for as long as possible, but where this is not feasible the health service supports access to quality long-term residential care where this is appropriate, and we continue to develop and improve health services in all regions of the country and to ensure quality and patient safety.

The Health Service Executive has sole operational responsibility for the delivery of health and social services, including those at facilities such as Loughloe House. The Senator is obviously well aware of Loughloe House and is very familiar with its residents. It is a former welfare home and shares the site with day services for older persons for the area.

All developments have to be addressed in the light of the current economic and budgetary pressures. The executive has been asked to make a rigorous examination of how existing funding might be reconfigured or re-allocated to ensure maximum service provision is achieved. In particular, we need to ensure the highest standard of care will continue to be provided to all patients in a safe and secure environment.

As a welfare home Loughloe House once accommodated up to 40 patients of lower dependency. In recent times, given the increasing dependency of clients and other challenges, the number of residents has fallen to 25. Of the 25 residents, the longest resident has been there for 14 years while the most recent arrival was a year ago.

Loughloe House is one of two long-stay facilities in Athlone, the second being St. Vincent's community nursing unit, CNU, which is situated in the town centre. There is only a distance of approximately a mile between the two units. In St Vincent's CNU there are approximately 60 residents. There is the one management structure for the two units.

At a broad strategic level, the overall plan for HSE services in Athlone had been to transfer all services to the Clonbrusk area of the town where lands were purchased by the Midland Health Board in 1999. This would have allowed the proposed Clonbrusk campus to become the hub for HSE service delivery in Athlone. This plan would have facilitated the closure of Loughloe House as well as allowing several other premises to be vacated. In anticipation of these plans, spending on existing infrastructure, including both Loughloe House and St Vincent's, was limited in recent years. That answers the Senator's question as to the reason there was no investment in the facility. It was intended to move services to the Clonbrusk site. Given the current financial constraints, the anticipated developments at Clonbrusk have been curtailed and the construction of a new community nursing unit on the site has been postponed for the foreseeable future.

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