This article is from page 4 of the 2012-01-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
CONCERNS have been raised this week by members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association in Clare that cutbacks with the health services in Tipperary will severely impact of the care that will be available for Clare psychiatric patients.
This is because the closure of the psychiatric ward at Clonmel Hospital now means that patients from the north Tipperary catchment that were previously catered for in Clonmel now have to come to Ennis for treatment.
“This impacts on Clare,” one psy- chiatric nurse told The Cla re People this week, “because a service that was there for Clare patients is effectively being stretched with much more demands placed on it.
“This leads to overcrowding and patients being on the corridors,” he added. The Cla re People has learned that up to 12 patients from north Tipperary who previously would have been catered for in Clonmel have now come to Ennis for their psychiatric care needs.
With only around 40 psychiatric beds in Clare at present, the move to bring patients from Tipperary for their treatment to already overloaded services in Clare has been met with opposition from public representatives.
“This has to be put on hold,” said Cllr Brian Meaney, who is a member of Regional Health Forum West.
“The HSE should do this until such time as they know what their staff compliment for psychiatric services will be this year and if it is implemented it will put a very big strain on resources,” he added.
The news of extra demand for acute beds in Clare comes at the same time as the publication of the HSE Service Plan for 2012 that was launched by the Minister for Health, James Reilly on Monday.
“It’s clear that there is now a reduction in bed capacity in acute services in the region and this places greater pressure on services in Clare,” Deputy Timmy Dooley said on Monday, “while there could be a reduction of up to 230 elderly care beds in the public area over the next year in the west area that Clare is a part of.
“If this happens the long-term future of the public nursing homes that are in Ennistymon, Raheen and Kilrush could be put in jeopardy,” he added.
The HSE West was contacted by The Cla re People , but declined to comment on the Clare specifics of the 2012 Service Plan.