A former mayor and city councillor has slammed the HSE’s decision not to provide clients attending a day psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of the city with sandwiches to accompany their soup.
Cllr Catherine Connolly says people attending the La Nua centre in Ballybane were originally given lunches but due to cutbacks these were no longer supplied from last September.
The decision attracted widespread condemnation at the time with many political representatives pointing out that some of the service users had eating disorders and it was their main meal of the day. Other clients come from hostels and depended on this lunch, they said. They also outlined that the centre, which is situated at Ballybane Neighbourhood Village, is not close to restaurants or food outlets so there are no facilities locally for clients to obtain food.
Cllr Connolly says the facility provides soup for clients but not sandwiches.
“Not to provide lunches is shocking in itself but not to provide a healthy sandwich is miserly in the extreme and shameful. They are getting soup and rolls which are delivered by a private catering company. The white rolls come frozen as I understand it and the soup is in a large container. There is no fresh bread and/or brown bread and no sandwiches.
“There are on average about 20 patients attending on a daily basis and to treat them like this is contemptible. These are very vulnerable people for so many reasons and the coming together for a warm healthy meal is essential.”
Raising the issue at a meeting of the HSE’s regional health forum west she described this latest action as “the most miserly cut”.
HSE management outlined they would review the situation.
A statement issued by the HSE West when the cuts were originally announced last year said it was not the practice in day hospitals around the country to provide clients with meals.
“To date €93,000 has been spent on catering services for people attending the mental health services in west Galway. The allocated budget for same is €31,000 and therefore the current position is untenable if we are to achieve our legal responsibility to break even.
“In the case of Lá Nua Day Hospital most clients are based at the hospital for a short period of time each day and can still avail of complimentary tea-making facilities and snacks as required.”
