First patients could be admitted to Nenagh step-down unit this month
People taking part in the Save Nenagh Community Nursing Unit protest in Nenagh,Co Tipperary earlier this year. Picture: Eamon Ward
A public meeting on plans for a controversial hospital step-down unit in Nenagh heard the first patients could be admitted this month even though recruitment for senior staff roles is still under way.
Concerns were raised about the short turnaround. It usually takes months to carry out Garda vetting and other personnel checks.
The meeting on Friday also discussed the future of older people’s care in the town.
The building which will house this unit had been expected to open as a nursing home earlier this year, meeting organiser and Siptu shop steward Anna Tracey said afterwards.
Independent TD Micheal Lowry was among those who addressed the meeting.
“The Nenagh unit is contracted to Bartra Healthcare for one year only. A Consultant-led team of Doctors, Nurses, and Therapists will be on site,” he posted on his social media channel.
"The facility will be run as a Community Step-Down Rehab and will support the clinical needs of those transferred from UHL.”
He understands patients from north Tipperary will be prioritised for admission.
“The commencement date for the transfer of the first patients is the middle of this month (August),” he added.
He said “senior executives in the HSE” have confirmed to him the building will revert after one year to the nursing home plan.
Bartra Healthcare is advertising roles in Nenagh for staff nurses and healthcare assistants on 12-month fixed term contracts.
A recruitment open day advertised for August 12 seeks applicants for a director of nursing, assistant director of nursing, and other senior roles. Job offers will be made on the day, the adverts say.
Ms Tracey said this is worrying as it appears to indicate a “really short” turn-around between recruitment and staff starting work with vulnerable people.
“One of my colleagues got up and spoke and said when we joined the HSE we had to jump through hoops including Garda clearance,” she said.
“You have to wait three or four months to get all your references.”
She called on the HSE to urgently publish details of the plans including the contract with Bartra Healthcare and to offer reassurances the usual checks will be carried out.
Families in the region remain fearful the promised one-year limit on this alternate use of the site will not be adhered to by the HSE, she warned.
Bartra Healthcare runs private nursing homes and a unit providing step-down care on behalf of the HSE in north Dublin. It is part of the Bartra Group whose website states they are a group of Irish property professionals.
The Bartra Group also has an affiliate Bartra Wealth Advisors.
The latter states on its website that it used the Irish Immigrant Investor Programme, the so-called ‘golden visa’ programme, to link wealthy investors to projects such as the Loughshinny Nursing Home.
The golden-visa programme was shut down by the Government last year.
There were no representatives from UHL or the HSE Mid West health region at Friday’s meeting.
However, the HSE previously defended the temporary move as part of measures to address overcrowding at UHL.
“The interim sub-acute rehabilitation unit at Nenagh will be available to patients transferring from acute hospitals across the region, including at Nenagh Hospital,” a spokesman said earlier this summer.
“The benefit of having access to rehabilitation and sub-acute care for our elderly population in North Tipperary and across the wider region cannot be underestimated.”
Referring to overcrowding at UHL, he said this plan will help them better manage admissions.
He also said: “no resident of St Conlon’s will be discommoded owing to this interim decision and the existing St Conlon’s will continue to operate while the recruitment for the new community nursing unit is finalised.”
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