Despite cross-party unanimity and at least 20 supporters in the public gallery, the future of Loughloe House as a HSE entity was rubberstamped this week, when local HSE manager, Joe Ruane, admitted to the monthly meeting of Athlone Town Council that there was nothing he could do about the geriatric facility beside the Jolly Mariner.
He also revealed that plans for the primary health facility in Clonbrusk have been mothballed until at least 2016, and possibly longer. The only silver lining he could offer was the reassurance that St Vincent’s was to continue operating in Athlone.
“A difficult decision was made to close Loughloe House. I’ve apologised and I’ll apologise again in relation to the methods of communication [used to inform interested parties] about the closure. If there was an alternative route, I’d happily take that on board,” he said to a deflated chamber.
“There are a variety of factors why and there isn’t a magic wand I can wave. I can’t recruit staff and I can’t build Clonbrusk,” he added.
Ruane, health services manager for Longford/Westmeath, brought the stark reality of the HSE’s national situation to the packed chamber by pointing out that €0.5 billion had been removed from its capital budget in just the last three years, and this has led to massive cuts.
As an example, he pointed out that 2010’s infrastructure budget for the two counties was one fifth what it was in 2007 and was already spent by February on just the required fire safety improvements required for Loughloe.
Though not confirmed, plans to close Loughloe had been tentatively pencilled in by HSE management a number of years ago, with its replacement to be incorporated in the Clonbrusk centre with a new geriatric facility there.
The problem of closing Loughloe and re-housing its 28 remaining residents became problematic when the €17m Clonbrusk facility was long fingered last year by the HSE. Already €1.7m has been spent by the HSE on this facility with the purchase of the site and the design and planning costs.
The major problem with Loughloe in recent times has been with staffing, as three directors of nursing have left since 2009 and not been replaced. Five staff are off sick at the moment and an HSE-wide moratorium on recruitment has not helped, Mr Ruane said.
“Let me be abundantly clear, I have challenged the moratorium since May 2009. My experience to date is that the flexibility is not available in Longford/Westmeath,” he said.
To illuminate the staffing difficulties at the facility, Ruane pointed out that the offer of six month contracts to two agency staff recently saw neither even turn up for interview.
