HSE scurries about as rats invade health centre
This discovery was made by the public health nurse and a young mother who had taken her child to the centre.
Ironically, the conscientious nurse went on to see her patients in the garden and to carry out all paperwork there for the rest of the morning.
In an unacceptable twist to this outrageous state of affairs, I have learnt that public health nurse management is now requesting the nurses to return to work there today and to run a breastfeeding clinic for mothers tomorrow.
This is against the nurses wishes and I fully agree with them that these are unsafe conditions for children, parents and staff. Under no circumstances must this be allowed.
We now have a health system gone mad with no sense of proportion or accountability.
The very same health agency would rightly close down a restaurant or a private facility if rats were discovered on someone else’s premises.
The only remedial action that is being taken is that a pest exterminator has been brought in and traps have been laid.
However, it is clear that the environment of the one-roomed health centre is an ideal habitat for rats; the garden is overgrown with lodged grass and has been untended for a considerable period. Furthermore, two rats means there is a nest of them. The spread of disease by rats in an environment where babies, toddlers and young children attend and play is a frightening prospect.
There is no guarantee that all health risks will be eradicated and made safe by today.
I have informed HSE Galway senior management that I don’t wish anyone to return to these unsafe conditions. In my presence a call was made to see if an emergency rental premises could be found.
But I don’t have the confidence that a new, better and permanent solution will be found for good reason.
This should never have happened. Two-and-a -half years ago the HSE had deemed this centre to be unsuitable to work in, too small to meet the surging local population’s needs and effectively condemned due to its poor condition.
At the time a public health nurse asked me to help her identify another suitable premises, an exercise I and others engaged in, but which came to nought because in the end there was no commitment by the HSE.
I then set up a working group with the HSE and other local stakeholders to pursue a primary healthcare centre to meet public health needs on the east side of Galway city.
I was delighted to learn that an analysis showed a definite need for a primary healthcare centre to be established in the greater Oranmore area and that there was a strong business case to support this from the HSE staff’s perspective.
But that was really as far as it got. I pushed this project for two years. Eventually the person in charge of the file was moved to another area and no one else has been assigned to the file since last winter.
I raised this matter a number of times to no avail when I was a member of the HSE Forum West, another window- dressing exercise set up by the Government.
Where is the primary healthcare centre project now, you might wonder?
The response I got as a result of the rat-infested emergency situation we now find ourselves in is that the healthcare centre for Oranmore is “with the property committee, on hold pending the outcome of review”.
Senior management admitted to me they were “powerless”.
They said Health Minister Mary Harney knows about this, but it is taking her six to nine months to get an answer to any question.
The ironic thing is that at the recent Leinster House briefing of Oireachtas members, Prof Brendan Drumm told us he wants all patients out of hospital and back in the community as soon as possible (three days for hips and 12 hours after delivering a baby).
In Oranmore this would mean patients returning to the dark ages in healthcare. It is time we followed a different pied piper in this country.
Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames
Maree
Oranmore
Co Galway
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