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| Closure of Laurel Unit at Cherry Orchard must be stopped |
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The Laurel Unit in Cherry Orchard hospital is under threat of closure which means that the 19 patients currently being looked after there are to be moved to other units within the campus, causing great distress to the patients, Mary Upton TD stated today. “The 19 people who are in this unit are high dependency and have various conditions including Alzheimer’s, some are blind, and some have had strokes. These people should not be moved. They are dependant on a familiar environment and familiar things around. them. They depend on knowing the nurses and carers who look after them on a regular basis. For people with limited mobility and capacity to find their way around, they will be completely disorientated if they are moved to a new unit. Some of the patients have been here in this unit for up to 10 years. They have learned to cope with their surroundings and familiar items of furniture. They are able to manage to get around a little bit on their own, without help and this gives them a certain independence which they will lose is they are moved to unfamiliar surroundings, Deputy Upton said. “Their families have to come to rely on the fact that the patients are familiar with their surroundings, and are happy that the people being cared for are in a comfortable environment where they can move around with some confidence. In many cases the families are the only voices that these people have. Many of the patients are not able to plead their own case and depend on their caring families to look out for them. The family members are extremely concerned at the consequences of the moving of the patients from one unit to another. It is not like moving a mobile patient who is fully aware of their new surroundings and is a short-stay patient. . For many of these people the Laurel Unit is their home, Deputy Upton continued. “This is short term saving, with long term costs, if the patients are unhappy, confused and placed in a foreign environment.The patient’s needs must be put before a very small financial saving. It is time for the Government to address the real issues of our health system by putting the welfare of these patients before a small saving for the health service. There are many other areas within the health service where savings can be made, without risking the disruption of vulnerable patients and causing some of them even more confusion. I urge the Minister to review the decision to close this unit. And in the interests of patient comfort and security to ensure that adequate staff and carer service is provided to this unit. This is a very small investment to ensure the comfort and peace of mind of a number of vulnerable people who for the most part have come to be dependant on the familiarity of their surroundings and for some who have known no other home for a number of years. “ The Minister should look at this issue from a patients point of view and not look on patients as a revenue source. The comfort and confidence of the patients and their families must come before the “cost savings” of the Minister and her Department, Mary Upton stated. “I was very disappointed , if not surprised, at the Minister’s response when I raised this issue in the Dail this week. It is clear from her reply that bean-counting is more important than patient’s comfort and welfare, Mary Upton concluded.
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