Concerns have been raised over the shrinking of a unit for elderly patients at Cherry Orchard Hospital, Ballyfermot, writes STEPHEN MANGAN
A HSE official told a campaign group last week that talks with management at Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot, Dublin, would be held to resolve the issue of transferring elderly patients.
About 50 people gathered outside the HSE offices near Heuston Station in Dublin last Thursday to protest against reduced services in the Laurel unit, which caters for 17 people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
A number of protesters met an official, who said he would be meeting local management at the hospital to see if a compromise could be reached which would be satisfactory to both sides.
Eight patients in the Laurel unit will be transferred to vacant beds around the hospital in the coming weeks, while the remaining nine patients will stay in the unit.
Members of the Save Cherry Orchard Hospital campaign are calling on the HSE to prevent the transfer of patients because, they say, it will eventually lead to the unit’s permanent closure. Families of patients in the unit have complained to hospital management, as they fear that moving their loved ones out of their present environment will cause distress.
Hospital management has yet to confirm which patients will be transferred from the unit. However, it has notified patients’ relatives of its intention to hold a focus group tomorrow.
Marie Dodrill, whose husband has lived in the unit for the past seven months, said she would not give hospital management permission to transfer her husband because it would have a “severe effect on his health”.
“My husband was very ill this year and he won’t live much longer if he is moved out of the unit,” she said. “He’s 75 years old, with Alzheimer’s disease. Moving him out of the unit would have terrible side effects.”
A recent letter sent by the HSE asked the families of those affected to direct their opinions and concerns to the director of nursing at the hospital, rather than the HSE.
Philip Rogers, whose mother lives in the unit, said the concerns of families were not being adequately addressed by the HSE, which had not been in regular communication because “they don’t want to know”.
In its statement, the HSE said it was pursuing its plans to transfer patients to other wards in the hospital, as a management decision had been made to consolidate one long-stay unit on the campus.
According to the statement, HSE representatives are planning to meet family members individually in the coming weeks, in order to address their concerns.