Minister for Health must ensure that the HSE get their act together and get funding in place to open beds
Sinn Féin TD for Louth and East Meath Imelda Munster has said it “beggars belief” that nine beds remain unopened in the new dementia community nursing unit at Boyne View Nursing Home.
She has called on the Minister for Health to ensure that the HSE “get their act together and get funding in place” in order for the beds to be opened.
Deputy Munster said:
“It’s ridiculous that these beds remain unopened. We’ve been waiting 12 years for these promised beds. Initially there was to be 30, but now there’s only nine and they’re not even open.
“I’ve been querying this with the HSE and received a letter saying that ‘a business case has been submitted to national HSE for additional funding and approval…and once approval is sought Older Person Services will move to recruit additional staffing.’
“It beggars belief that it’s taking this long to get these beds open. This has been planned for many years so it makes no sense that the beds remain unopened at this stage.
“We need for funding to be approved and recruitment to begin immediately in order for these beds to open.
“We have people who need residential care waiting on those beds, and people who are being denied respite care due to the delay.
“It’s not fair on people who require these services to be left waiting like this and it’s not fair on their families. This is an urgent matter for those who need care.
“We’ve a situation where the HSE know that funding must be sought in order to recruit staff to open these beds, yet they can’t seem to coordinate the building of the facility with the funding process for recruitment. This is leaving people who need care high and dry, having already waited 12 years for these promised beds in the first instance.
“Having received this unacceptable response from the HSE, I’ve written to the Minister for Health asking him to take charge of this fiasco.”
