Reade Demands Permanent Funding For St Brigid's Hospital
Eddie Reade has called on the HSE and the government to provide permanent funding for St Brigid’s Hospital in Carrick-On-Suir. Éirígí’s representative for South Tipperary and Waterford made the call ahead of a community protest which is due to take place at 3pm on Saturday (July 4) - the fifth such protest in as many weeks.
Until March of this year, St Brigid’s provided both hospice and respite services for Carrick-On-Suir and the surrounding communities. This changed, however, when St Brigid’s was designated as a step-down facility for patients recovering from Covid-19. Within days all services were suspended, beds were emptied and the hospital was given a superficial makeover. Speaking in relation to St Brigid’s, Eddie Reade said,
Eddie Reade (second from left in high-viz jacket) at a recent protest outside of St Brigid’s.
“The services that St Brigid’s provide for the town and the surrounding community are invaluable. Over the years the community has raised huge amounts of money to help fund the services that is provides.
As a community we succeeded in raising enough funds to ensure that local people can receive dignified end-of-life care in modern facilities near to their families, friends and wider community. The value of such a facility cannot be measured in euros and cents alone.
The same goes for the respite services that St Brigid’s provides. Carers, who are given little enough support by the state, should not be expected to travel long distances to access respite care. Having a local community-based facility massively reduces the hassle and stress for carers and those who are being cared for alike.
I have serious concerns that some families may chose not to put their loved ones through the stress and disruption of accessing respite care in unfamiliar setting in Tipperary Town, a round-trip of over 120kms. As ever they may chose to put the needs of their loved one ahead of their own. This cannot be allowed to happen. “
The weekly protests at St Brigid’s have been supported by hundreds of local people over the last four weeks.
Eddie continued by calling for permanent funding for respite and hospice services at St Brigid’s,
“The most recent concerns about the future of St Brigid’s date back to 2018 when a leaked report from HIQUA (Health Information and Quality Authority) proposed that the number of beds in St Brigid’s should be reduced, a move which could pave the way for the entire hospital to be deemed too small to be viable.
While people understand that we are facing a major public health emergency with Covid-19, there are very real fears that the pandemic will be used as an excuse to close St Brigid’s for good. The longer the disruption to the existing services goes on, the greater that fear becomes.
Today, I’m again calling on the HSE and the new government to publicly state that respite and hospice services will resume at St Brigid’s at the soonest possible date and that funding will be ring-fenced to ensure that the services are of the highest quality and permanently available to our community.
Until we get written, public commitments to that effect our protests on the streets of Carrick-On-Suir will continue. I’d encourage anyone from the town and the surrounding areas to come along to the community protest at 3pm on Saturday. The more people that back this campaign, the sooner we’ll win.”