More than 100 nurses, patients, relatives and local people have protested outside Peamount Hospital in west Dublin over plans to phase out its specialised TB services, writes Alison Healy.
In its five-year strategy launched yesterday, the hospital plans to focus on providing a range of rehabilitation and continuing care services to people with neurological, pulmonary and intellectual disabilities, as well as older people.
It plans to phase out its chest hospital, which includes in-patient TB and non-TB acute respiratory services. The strategy states that the chest hospital does not fit in with the new vision for rehabilitation and independent living.
The Irish Nurses Organisation led yesterday's protest, claiming that TB patients would have to be treated in hospitals around the State once the services were phased out in Peamount. Ms Colette Mullins, INO industrial relations officer, said: "This will increase the risk of others becoming infected with this highly contagious disease."
She said these patients would add more delays to the already excessive waiting times at overstretched accident and emergency departments. The patients would also suffer from the diffusion of the expertise which existed in Peamount.
However, a spokeswoman for Peamount described the INO claims as "alarmist and misleading". She said it was a myth that Peamount was the only hospital to treat TB. Patients were already receiving treatment in hospitals all over the State, she said, and the hospital would continue to provide pulmonary services.
However, the INO insisted it was the only hospital offering a specialised TB service. Peamount currently has 60 places for TB and chest/respiratory patients, 170 places for patients with intellectual disabilities and 96 places for neurological patients and older people. The five-year plan will include the development of a 50-bed rehabilitation unit and a transition bungalow to help patients move from the rehab unit to supported living or living at home.
INO members are meeting next week to discuss their campaign for further action. "It's not over yet," Ms Mullins said last night.