What's the plan for St Vincent's?

A conversation needs to take place in relation to the future use of St Vincent's Care Centre, according to a local councillor, who is calling for it to be repurposed to provide additional services in the town.

Fine Gael's John Dolan said it would "a shame to see what was a fully functioning hospital mothballing" after the HSE confirmed to the Westmeath Independent that the new 50-bed Community Nursing Unit (CNU) in Clonbrusk, which will replace St Vincent's, is on course to be finished by the fourth quarter of this year.

However, when asked what the plan is for St Vincent's once the new Community Nursing Unit is in operation - the HSE stated it is "dependent on whether HSE service have a future need for the building".

Queried if St Vincent's will close or be repurposed for another use, the spokesperson pointed out that "if there is a service requirement for the building it will be repurposed. This will be determined following internal review by the service". No timeline was given for that internal review.

Cllr John Dolan has called on the HSE to start thinking outside the box in terms of a future use for the prominent Athlone premises before it shuts its doors.

"There is an opportunity to improve the offering in Athlone rather than just moving over what we have now to a new building," the Kilgarvan-based representative maintained.

It will take approximately six months to equip and commission the new CNU in Clonbrusk, the HSE confirmed, with the estimated opening date pencilled in for the second quarter of next year.

"We need to have the conversation before the doors close in St Vincent's. Surely something can be done there to repurpose the building ...it was a fully functioning hospital after all,” he added.

Cllr Dolan suggested that the case of Roscommon hospital which has “found a new life” since the A&E closed there is an example that St Vincent’s could follow.

“The point I’d make is we have an expanding population in Athlone, and while it’s welcome to have this fabulous new facility (in Clonbrusk), why can’t we have an open mind in relation to St Vincent’s, and look at providing additional services there?” Cllr Dolan asked.

He queried whether it could house a minor injuries unit, similar to Roscommon, or it could be a base where minor or day procedures could be carried out to take the pressure off the acute hospitals in Mullingar and Ballinasloe.

In Clonbrusk, adjacent to the Primary Care Centre, construction is continuing on-site on internal services, fit-out works and external civil works for the new 50-bed Community Nursing Unit.

Following questions from the Westmeath Independent, the HSE said there are currently 31 patients in St Vincent’s and all staff and patients will move to Clonbrusk once it is up and running. It confirmed that additional staff will be required to open the additional long-term care beds in Clonbrusk.

The Athlone CNU project is one of seven Community Nursing Units being developed presently, under a public-private partnership arrangement, announced in early December of 2022 prior to work starting in the early part of last year.

Equisisk, a Dublin-based company, was appointed to design, build, finance and maintain each of the new Community Nursing Units for a 25-year period before handing back the facilities to the HSE.

Under the terms of the contract, annual payments of €24 million will be paid by the HSE to the company for each of the 25 years.

A highly controversial part of the Community Nursing Unit project has been the HSE’s plan to close the South Westmeath Hospice, on the grounds of St Vincent’s Care Centre, and to relocate the service to Clonbrusk in what the hospice committee fears would not be a like-for-like facility.

The HSE has reiterated on a number of occasions that “four Level 2 Palliative Care support beds” would be included as part of the CNU project.

South Westmeath Hospice said the mediation process with the HSE remains ongoing in relation to the future of the hospice unit.

Each of the seven new Community Nursing Units being developed nationally will be made up of “25-bed households, including single and twin bedrooms en-suite,” Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said at the contract signing for the CNU bundle.

“Each household includes a dayroom and sunroom, dining area, break out spaces, activity spaces, quiet rooms, external spaces and staff and nursing areas,” Minister Donnelly explained of the new Athlone building, which will span over 5,000 square metres in total.

In addition, shared areas and therapy spaces will be provided with facilities including a family overnight stay room, clinical treatment rooms, physiotherapy and occupational therapy rooms and hairdressers’ rooms.

There are also plans to incorporate a day centre as part of the new Community Nursing Unit in Athlone.

The new CNU facility will be a state-of-the-art replacement for outdated facilities in St Vincent’s which have been the subject of criticism from HIQA for many years, because of the lack of en-suite facilities, single rooms and the need for greater communal and personal space. The new CNU building will have a mix of long and short-term beds.