HSE 'hopes' to open Killarney nursing home by end of the month, as Hiqa flag issues in inspection

The home is one of seven that had been expected to be completed by 2024

The nursing home built in Killarney. Labour councillor Marie Moloney said: 'We’ve been promised an opening date so many times already.' File picture: Jerry O'Sullivan/Radio Kerry

A new nursing home in Killarney could finally open this month, the HSE said, despite health watchdog Hiqa having asked for further works to be done.

The home is one of a group of seven that had been expected to be completed by 2024, in a partnership between the HSE and Equisisk. 

HSE South-West officials were answering questions at the Regional Health Forum, which heard HSE Southwest wrote to Hiqa, “confirming updated site works and agreed dates for requested outstanding works” on the new building.

This follows Hiqa’s initial inspections, it is understood.

In response to motions from independent councillor Jackie Healy-Rae, HSE South-West integrated healthcare area manager Julie O’Neill said: “It is hoped that these confirmations will be sufficient for Hiqa to grant provisional registration of the unit in the coming days.” 

She said a phased transfer of residents from older homes depends on registration and ongoing talks with unions about staffing. 

“It is hoped that this will be completed by the end of June,” she said.

However, Labour councillor Marie Moloney told the Irish Examiner: “Councillors find this hard to accept as we’ve been promised an opening date so many times already.” 

She has been contacted by families whose older relatives were sent to nursing homes “up the country and out of Kerry” due to bed shortages. 

“People are frustrated,” she said. 

You have a new hospital sitting in your own town and no one in it, it’s very disappointing.

Sinn Féin councillor Deirdre Ferris also raised questions about staffing with the HSE at the Forum.

“I don’t really feel I got an answer,” she said, adding that “they’re giving us this date of June, but they can’t 100% stand over it.” 

Ms Ferris works at University Hospital Kerry and sees the daily pressures facing families in need of a nursing home bed. “We’re constantly in emergency situations where people are requested to go to alternative hospitals in Mallow or Bantry because we’re in such a state,” she said.

“We have patients held up in hospital beds because there is no home care package or they are waiting for suitable long-term or step-down facilities – we have a wholly inadequate number of them in this county," Ms Ferris added. 

All new nursing homes must be registered with Hiqa (Health Information and Quality Authority) before taking in residents. 

Hiqa was contacted for comment.

So far, none of the seven nursing homes in the project with Killarney is open. This includes those in Cork City at St Finbarr's hospital, Midleton, and Clonmel in Tipperary. 

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