The report of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA ) on Athlone’s Loughloe House care facility is due to be published in the coming days.
The report is expected to explain why the HSE took the shock decision last week to close Loughloe House on a phased basis over the next two months.
For the second weekend running, a protest march against the closure of the facility has been planned for this Sunday, as residents and their relatives await the findings of the HIQA report that prompted the closure. Last Saturday’s march attracted up to 1,500 supporters.
The HSE’s local health manager, Joe Ruane, is to meet with councillors on June 5 to discuss the HSE decision on Loughloe House. He will also be questioned on the future of St Vincent’s Hospital, amid fears it may suffer a similar fate.
However, relatives and friends of the residents of Loughloe House are concerned that it may be too late then to save Loughloe House, as preparations are already being put in place to transfer residents to other facilities.
Condemning the delay in the report’s publication, Cllr Paul Hogan called on the HSE to “cease their relocation plans until the HIQA report can be publicly digested to establish its content”.
“I believe its content does not include the closure of the facility. The HSE should carry out the works highlighted in the report and commit to the nursing home’s future in Athlone,” he said.
Speaking at this week’s Athlone Area Meeting, which was attended by a group of up to 20 supporters of Loughloe House, Cllr Frankie Keena said he was “saddened, shocked, and very disappointed” at plans to close Loughloe House.
“It is a knee-jerk reaction to close it when the report has not even been published. The HSE got a draft report last Tuesday and the letter was issued on Wednesday that the facility was to close. Families should have a chance to see the report.”
Meanwhile Cllr Mark Cooney said he had no doubt the HSE and the Department of Health have an agenda to close down State-run nursing homes and move residents into private nursing homes.
“The means by which the HSE go about this is to engage HIQA. Once the HSE have determined a facility is sufficiently run down they send in HIQA who determine this,” he said.
“Money spent over the past number of years would have rendered the facility satisfactory. It is very clear there is no going back as far as the HSE is concerned; they are not for changing and the minister is not for changing.”
