A PUBLIC meeting takes place in Waterford tonight following confirmation from the Health Service Executive that it plans to push ahead with the controversial closure of a ward in the city’s St Patrick’s Hospital.
The meeting is being organised to come up with a new plan of action to halt the closure of the 19-bed St Brigid’s ward which was outlined in the recently published HSE South’s service plan for 2009. There is strong opposition to the move in Waterford.
The Friends of St Patrick’s Hospital group believes that if the closure, for health and safety reasons, goes ahead, it will begin the demise of the 120-bed St Patrick’s, the city’s only dedicated geriatric hospital.
They attended a meeting on Monday along with city mayor Jack Walsh, local Oireachtas representatives and members of the Regional Health Forum (South) where HSE officials confirmed the closure, planned for July, is still on the cards.
“With these bed closures, there will be just 72 long-stay hospital beds for our elderly left in the Waterford community care area,” said a representative for the Friends of St Patrick’s Hospital.
The assistant national director of primary community and continuing care of the HSE South, Pat Healy, said plans were in the pipeline to counteract the loss of the long-stay beds at St Brigid’s ward in the hospital.