Hands off our hospice!

There was a unanimous outpouring of anger locally when news emerged last week of HSE plans to close the existing South Westmeath Hospice building in the campus of St Vincent's Care Centre in Athlone by the year end.

Immediately, a campaign to save the hospice was initiated and a wave of local support from the political sphere and the local community swept in behind the voluntary South Westmeath Hospice committee, which developed the €1.9m facility.
The HSE has proposed to close the existing hospice building, temporarily provide two palliative care beds in the existing community nursing facility for the elderly at St Vincent's and then at least two, and possibly four, palliative care beds in a new community nursing unit to be built at Clonbrusk.
The outstanding generosity of the people of South Westmeath, Athlone and South Roscommon built the existing local hospice unit. Ongoing fundraising provides over €100,000 annually to HSE coffers to help meet running costs.
The HSE move represents an astounding snub to the thousands who took part and backed the countless fundraisers, from cycles to coffee mornings to parachute jumps.
At the time of going to press on Tuesday, members of the South Westmeath Hospice Committee and some local elected representatives were engaged in an emergency meeting with Health Minister Simon Harris.
It's possible that, after this paper was published, some more positive indications emerged last night following these discussions.
However, it's evident that no matter what the outcome of that meeting the message needs to be sent loud and clear from the wider community in this region: Hands off our Hospice!
The HSE has now laid its cards on the table. It wants shut of the existing hospice facility.
The South Westmeath Hospice Committee has insisted it will accept nothing less than a like for like hospice unit, with all ancillary support services.
It has our full support in this stance.
There is no room here for prevarications, equivocations or uncertainties.
The planning application for the Clonbrusk facility was only submitted in recent weeks. It could conceivably take many years before this much-needed investment comes to fruition.
In the meantime, the future of St Vincent's Care Centre remains shrouded in doubt with health watchdog HIQA keeping a close eye and its current registration as a nursing centre running out in April 2021.
The existing Clonbrusk plans do not provide for a specific hospice unit and any palliative care beds would be within the community nursing unit – and may not match the privacy and dignity provided in the custom-built hospice unit.
The local hospice committee has three simple demands: that the current proposal by the HSE be removed; that a previous letter of guarantee from the HSE which promises the complete service provided from the Hospice building on the St Vincent's site would be transferred and mirrored in any new health campus in Athlone would be honoured; and that the South Westmeath Hospice Foundation be acknowledged by the HSE as a key stakeholder in the delivery of palliative care and to engage constructively with them.
The HSE is to be commended for its recent investment in health infrastructure in Athlone. 
The primary care facility at Clonbrusk is a real success story and the proposed new 50-bed nursing unit will be a huge addition when built.
However, in this case, the HSE has got it badly wrong.