FAMILIES OF RESIDENTS at Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot who are to be moved temporarily to a private residential home have described the situation as a “nightmare”.
In May, health watchdog HIQA inspected two units at the hospital and identified problems with the flooring, posing a potential health and safety risk. The HSE has decided to temporarily move 67 residents who live in the units to a private nursing home in Clondalkin.
Campaign group Care Champions Ireland this week published an open letter in which families of the residents accused the HSE of choosing low-cost solutions at the expense of patients.
The group pointed to the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2025, noting that the legislation protects patients’ right to be consulted in decisions about their care. The families claim that the HSE violated the legislation by failing to involve residents in the decision-making process.
“The approach of the HSE once again mirrors an outdated medical model approach which views residents simply as people to be placed anywhere it suits the HSE, rather than as individual rights holders,” the letter read.
Cherry Orchard is a care home for elderly people which provides 24-hour care. There are currently 94 full-time residents.
Ann Sweeney, whose father is a resident, believes that the relocation will be too much for him.
“The concern is the trauma of moving,” she said. “My dad’s not going to be here in 12 months’ time if they move him.”
Sweeney said there were several factors about the move that concerned families – including that while Cherry Orchard is a hospital, Clondalkin Lodge is a residential home.
Last week, the families held a protest in Ballyfermot, holding placards reading “old lives matter” and “human rights do not grow old”.
As part of the move, the patients will also become part of a new catchment area – meaning that if they get very ill they will be sent to Tallaght Hospital instead of St James’s.
Sweeney’s father, who has been living at Cherry Orchard for over a year, encounters the same staff every day and adjusting to new surroundings, she says, may be difficult for him.
“The continuity of care is important”, she said.
“He’s going to have to make all new relationships.”
Care Champions Ireland’s open letter was sparked, the organisation said, by the HSE’s failure to consult residents about the move before communicating the announcement in a “generic letter”.
The group claimed that some residents were notified by a piece of paper stuck to their wardrobes, which they described as “an act of gross disrespect”.
A spokesperson for the HSE said in a statement that the executive regretted that residents will have to be moved temporarily, but stressed that the structural work would take place promptly “so that the residents can return as soon as possible”.
The residents were due to start moving out of Cherry Orchard by 20 November, but it is understood that the HSE has paused relocation for now.
Representatives from the HSE met with families yesterday to discuss their concerns. Sweeney, who was in attendance, said that “not a lot” came from the conversation.
The group has asked for copies of the correspondence between HIQA and the HSE regarding the closures.
The works are expected to take a minimum of 12 months, and the HSE has guaranteed that residents will incur no extra costs in the first year. However, there has been no indication of whether this financial support will extend beyond that point if works take longer.
“It’s just a nightmare,” Sweeney said.
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