Relatives fight home closure

NINETY-THREE-year-old Esther Holden had hoped to end her days in a Dublin public nursing home that is due to close soon.

She is one of 80 residents at St Brigid’s Home, Crooksling, Brittis, and her daughter, Joyce, who chairs the Save Crooksling Hospital Action group, is fighting to keep the facility open.

Joyce said patients and their families were entirely happy with the care residents received in the recently renovated facility.

“My mother suffers from dementia and has many health problems. She cried when I told her St Brigid’s is to close. I don’t believe the home has to be shut down,” she said.

Joyce said her mother had been a resident in the home for more than six years and had hoped that it would be where she ended her days.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said it decided to close St Brigid’s because it had become apparent that the facility would not meet the standards demanded by the Health Information and Quality Authority.

The HSE wants to transfer most of the residents and staff over the next three to six months to a new modern purpose-built unit with a bed capacity of 50 at Hollybrook Community Nursing Unit in Inchicore.

It said other units in the Dublin mid-Leinster HSE region would be identified for the transfer of both residents and staff.

“The selection of an alternative placement will be governed by the wishes and needs of each resident and it is the intention that each family will be given the opportunity and time to discuss the options that will be available,” the authority said.

Families of the residents at the home plan to stage a protest outside St Brigid’s tomorrow when the health authority and unions meet for talks.

Joyce said a significant amount of money had been spent on improving the facility over the last five years, including €2m on a new kitchen and a palliative care and physiotherapy unit.

“The home looks fabulous now. I can’t see anything wrong with the place and neither can the families of the other patients.”

However, a report by the Health Information and Quality Authority in December 2009 found that while residents received a quality service, the building and environment had some serious defects.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which revealed the home’s imminent closure last month, said the home should be maintained and resources provided to ensure it had a viable future. The INMO warned that the closure of the home would have a major impact on Tallaght Hospital that relies on St Brigid’s to take many of its patients who require long term care.

Sinn Féin health spokesperson Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin condemned the decision, saying it was part of a plan to privatise nursing home care. He claimed the HSE had used a HIQA report that did not recommend closure to justify their decision.