Publicly owned nursing home should be built in Portlaoise say councillors
Councillors in Portlaoise have called for a publicly funded nursing home to be located on state owned land at Saint Fintan's Hospital
A PUBLICY owned nursing home should be built on the HSE owned grounds of Saint Fintan’s Hospital along the Dublin Road in Portlaoise.
Following on from the harrowing scenes witnessed on an RTÉ investigative television programme about events in private nursing homes, a Portlaoise councillor has called for a publicly funded nursing home to be built on state owned lands in the town.
Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald in her opening remarks on the subject said: “I want to say clearly, I’m not opposed to privately owned nursing homes. But, I feel people should have a choice and not just, as I call them, big warehouses - private nursing homes. I also want to make it clear that I am opposed to any other type of development on Saint Fintan’s Hospital land. As far as I’m aware the zoning on that land is only for health. A public nursing home is the obvious facility that could be put on the land.”
She said: “With the growth in our population we haven’t got enough public nursing homes. For a town the size of Portlaoise, with nearly 30,000 people and a lot of the population aging, we need to start a campaign for this nursing home in Saint Fintan’s for Portlaoise and for the whole county. It would be the ideal site to locate the nursing home.”
Supporting cllr Fitzgerald, who was speaking at the June monthly meeting of councillors from the Portlaoise Municipal District Council, cllr Caroline Dwane Stanely said: “I too want to see more state funded nursing home facilities in the county. At the moment 81% of nursing homes are privately owned in the country. I’m opposed to the big, private profit-making nursing facilities. The reality with these is that their priorities is not with the residents. I would also call for the expansion of the three public nursing homes here in Laois, Mountmellick, Abbeyleix and Shaen.”
Also supporting the motion cllr John Joe Fennelly said: “Nothing else should go on Saint Fintan’s land, only a nursing home. The land should never be considered for anything else, only for health services.”
Cllr Tommy Mulligan said: “I agree with public nursing homes. We’ve been encouraged to go towards privatisation and we’re up to over 80% private nursing homes now.
“When you consider that the people of Laois marched to keep Shaen and Abbeyleix (nursing homes) open. There was a reason. Because they are so popular, as well as Mountmellick. Public nursing homes should be an option, but unfortunately there’s less than 20% of them now. There’s definitely a need for a public nursing home in Portlaoise. There are fantastic nursing homes, but there’s always that fear, that profit over care doesn’t work.”
He said: “There’s ample space on the grounds of Saint Fintan’s. It’s an incredible location. It’s very important that Saint Fintan’s is kept for community use. A green area, a park area and as a pubic amenity. There’s very few green areas left in the town.”
Cllr Fitzgerld said that a public nursing home on the grounds of Saint Fintan’s Hospital “would sit in nicely with a green area in a public park. It would be very central.”
