AN APPLICATION by three residents of the Abbeyleix Community Nursing Unit for a High Court injunction preventing the HSE closing the home has been adjourned to early December.
Maureen Delaney (89) Bridget O’Neill (92) and Catherine Kelly (93), who have been cared for at the Co Laois home for the last number of years, secured leave last Friday to challenge the closure in judicial review proceedings against the HSE and Minister for Health.
The residents claim the decision to close the facility was made for financial reasons and without consultation with them and others affected and has caused irreparable loss, hurt and damage to the patients and the local community. The unit has 28 patients and respite care facilities for eight more.
Pending the outcome of the review, the residents also want an injunction preventing the closure.
At the High Court yesterday, Peter Finlay SC, for the HSE, asked for a week’s adjournment to allow his clients file a replying affidavit. The HSE would address matters in the applicants’ claim which it said were wrong, explain its decision and show there was nothing wrong in the process leading to the decision to close, he said.
The HSE had “absolutely no interest” in moving any of the residents “against their wishes in the immediate future”, he said. For legal reasons, the HSE would not give any undertakings to the court in this case but was prepared to give assurances nothing would happen to the residents in the meantime.
Conor Power, for the Minister for Health, said his client should not be in the proceedings as the decision to close the unit was taken by the HSE.
John Peart SC, for the residents, had expressed their concern that at least four assessments had taken place under a proposed plan to move them to other facilities but said they were happy to accept HSE assurances nothing would be done until the matter returned before the courts in December.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said he was satisfied to adjourn on grounds the situation at the unit would remain “unaltered”. In their action, the residents claim they moved into the facility after signing a contract with the HSE. The unit provided them with full-time care and medical and social supports. They claim, under their contracts, they cannot be moved unless there is a specific clinical reason for doing so and there has been full consultation with their families and representatives.
The HSE’s “unilateral decision” to shut the unit had caused great upset, they said.
The HSE has said the unit was being closed on a phased basis due to reduced financial allocation, difficulties in meeting Health Information and Quality Authority standards and ability to deliver a safe service in light of reducing staff numbers and the public service recruitment moratorium.