The Irish Times - Monday, Dec 5, 2011JOHN FALLONTHOUSANDS PROTESTED in Galway yesterday opposite a proposed closure of a HSEs St Francis Nursing Home in a Newcastle area of a city.The nursing home, which can accommodate 38 residents, is due to be closed from May, which has angered locals, who say a home is a crucial part of a community.The organiser of a march, local councillor Catherine Connolly, is critical of what she calls a national policy of shutting down public nursing homes as well as has called on Minister for Health Dr James Reilly to encounter a group.Why a Government would want to tighten a public nursing home which functions so well is baffling, she said..Hiqa [Health Information as well as Quality Authority] have conducted three surveys of a home in a last dual years, as well as each one has been glowing. The usually fault they could find was a lack of en suite toilets, but volunteers from Galway have come forward to do which work.Ms Connolly, who is additionally a member of a Western Regional Health Forum, says support from a public is forlorn for this nursing home, with one in every dual adult residents signing a apply to to stop its closure.More than 24,200 people have signed this apply to to keep St Francis open, she said. At a time when our hospitals are creaking at a seams, you have 46 people taking up acute caring beds in a countys hospitals which want to get in to nursing homes. How does it make sense to tighten an additional home?Referring to a similar criticism in Co Laois last month opposite a programmed closure of a Abbeyleix Community Nursing Unit over funding as well as staffing issues, Ms Connolly said: We had a great turnout today, but you want to build on what they did in Abbeyleix. They got a meeting with a minister as well as you are hopeful which you can additionally get ourselves in front of him.Elderly residents vowing to quarrel opposite a proposed closure of a Abbeyleix facility have brought a High Court challenge to a HSEs unilateral as well as devastating preference to tighten a unit for financial reasons. Mentioned briefly before a High Court on Friday, a court was told which a recent removal of three beds from a unit caused such concern to some elderly residents they were afraid to leave their beds.Similar closure announcements have been made in respect of a 80-bed St Brigids home at Crooksling in Brittas, Co Dublin, as well as St Brigids Hospital, Shaen, Portlaoise. The HSE is additionally looking to cut beds in St Vincents Hospital in Athy, Co Kildare.The Minister has pronounced cuts to community nursing units were unavoidable, blaming three factors: money, a moratorium on recruitment as well as a standard of some public facilities.
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