The closure of St Brigid’s Hospital in Carrick on Suir has again been highlighted in the Dáil.
The decision to end respite and palliative care services at the facility has angered locals who had fundraised for facilities in the hospital over the years.
The HSE plans to open a Community Healthcare Centre for chronic disease management in its place.
Local TDs have repeatedly called for the decision to be reversed with Independent Mattie McGrath targeting the Taoiseach in the Dáil today over what he described as the “unbelievable closure” of St Brigid’s:
“A wonderful institution which clearly had good enough beds for Covid-19, you took it over in March, and for cancer/palliative care. And you won’t even meet with the representatives there.
“There’s so much waste with procurement in the HSE, it’s shocking what’s going on in the HSE. And yet you don’t even have the manners or respect to meet with Cllr (Keiran) Bourke and his colleagues in Tipperary County Council, the nurses, the doctors, the action group involved in the hospital.
“They’re not going to accept this and it’s not going to go away. So I want to know when are you going to meet them.”
The Taoiseach has once again defended the HSE decision to end palliative and respite care at St Brigid’s Hospital in Carrick-on-Suir.
“I don’t know whether the deputy (McGrath) has talked to the HSE locally or not. I suspect the deputies are aware of why the HSE took the action it took. That said, my understanding is that the HSE wanted to invest in the centre with different purposes in mind.
“That the facility needs a lot of investment, that in its current structures, it’s not in a very good state. I think deputies would agree with that. But I’ve no issue in then engaging with the HSE. I haven’t refused to meet anybody. I don’t know why anybody is asserting that I have, I haven’t.”
