Mental health residential unit proposed for St Vincent’s
The grounds of St Vincent's Hospital in Athlone is being considered as a potential location for what the HSE is describing as a “mental health residence” for the Longford/Westmeath area, it has been confirmed.
To the surprise of many, a €100,000 allocation was included in the HSE's Capital Plan for 2022 for a new nine-bed mental health residential unit in St Vincent's.
The report, published back in May, did not give any detail on the project, other than to say that it was at appraisal stage in September, 2021.
After several follow up queries to the HSE Press Office, it has now been confirmed that the €100,000 was allocated as “seed funding to appoint a design team to develop plans” for a proposed replacement mental health residence in the Longford/Westmeath area.
While the HSE statement stressed that the proposal is “in its infancy”, it conceded the grounds of St Vincent's Hospital is being considered as a potential location for the 24-hour supervised residential unit.
"The new greenway was designed so as not to impact on any future proposed development at the rear of St Vincent's Hospital,” it goes on to say. “Any proposed development of mental health residences will be in line with national policy direction,” the HSE said.
The future of the St Vincent's site has been coming under the spotlight recently as its replacement, a new 50-bed community nursing unit in Clonbrusk, nears a construction date, possibly late this year or early 2023.
The HSE said it expects to finalise a contract for the construction of its new community nursing unit close to the primary care centre "early in the fourth quarter" of this year, which suggests it could be in October or November with work to begin shortly afterwards.
A long-term replacement for outdated facilities at St Vincent's, the new facility is due to be developed on a public-private partnership basis. St Vincent's currently cares for 23 residents.
A hugely controversial aspect of the project has been the HSE's plan to close the South Westmeath Hospice, on the grounds of St Vincent's, and to relocate the service to Clonbrusk, in what the hospice committee fears would not be a like-for-like facility.
In response to a query from the Westmeath Independent late last month, about the hospice element of the project, the HSE last week reiterated that "four Level 2 Palliative Care support beds" would be included as part of the Clonbrusk development.