Published: Wednesday, 25th August, 2010 5:00pm

Tensions grow in Loughloe House row

A meeting between the HSE and residents at Loughloe House last week has considerably upped the ante in the long-running dispute.

It's understood the eleven remaining residents and their families have been given until August 27 next to choose one of three options which the HSE said remained on the table.

The options include the residents returning to their family homes, entering private care or taking up an offer of accommodation at the adjacent St Vincent's Hospital.

The dramatic move is set to intensify tensions between families and the HSE, weeks after the first deadline for the closure of the nursing home passed.

The group representing families this week rejected the options, claiming that St Vincent's would not suit many of the patients.

There are now fears that the HSE will seek to close the building in the coming weeks, with the removal of staff the likeliest avenue to be pursued.

90-year-old Mary Durcan is a resident of Loughloe House and she considers her own room to be her home, a move to a hospital ward in St Vincent's Hospital would leave her miserable and confused, her daughter claimed this week.

"She can see the River Shannon from her room, and she has a tree full of sparrows outside her window, and she loves to talk about them all day long," Kay Munnelly, Loughloe Families PRO said this week in the wake of what she called an emotional meeting with the HSE, where relatives were given until Friday to decide on the three options, relocating to St Vincent's Hospital, a home care package or accommodation in a private nursing home. Her mother suffers from Alzheimers.

"Her window looks out on to the garden and Wansboro's Field, and the river is so picturesque," she noted this week. "She would be so terribly confused and miserable to be put into a room in a hospital ward, when she doesn't need to be St Vincent's or any other nursing home couldn't match what Loughloe has for my mother alone."

Furthermore the PRO said that 85-year-old, Jimmy Reilly has the whole run of the garden at Loughloe and loves his life there, and he walks to the shop every day for groceries, and walks around Wansboro field for exercise. She said this facility would be lost to him, if he went to St Vincent's.

Ms Munnelly said that representatives of all eleven families were at the meeting, and all were very united, and very determined to oppose the HSE on moving their loved ones.

"In St Vincent's not one of our Loughloe residents would have their own room, and they would be put into dormitory style accommodation," said the PRO.