HUNDREDS OF LOCAL residents in Abbeyleix, Co Laois have joined a campaign to save the town’s nursing unit from its impending closure by the HSE.
More than one thousand people attended a public meeting opposing the closure this week, according to leaders of the campaign to keep the unit open.
Some 28 elderly people currently housed at the facility will have to be relocated if it closes. The HSE announced earlier this month that the nursing unit would be shuttered, saying it would be impossible to maintain safety standards with the reduced health service budget.
Karen Shiel, secretary of the Abbeyleix and District Hospital Action Group, told TheJournal.ie: “We have one main aim, and that is to reverse the decision to close the hospital.”
She said local residents were “shocked and dismayed” to learn suddenly that the unit would be closed, and that its residents were elderly and frail.
There ar 28 long stay patients at the hospital, some of whom have been in there for decades. This is their home. They are vulnerable. It was done so quickly, just announced to them directly with no liaison or anything.
Shiel added that local people had raised considerable amounts of money over recent years for improvement works on the building. The action group are now organising a march against the closure on Sunday November 20 in Abbeyleix.
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