No opening date for dementia care unit on Cork's northside

The HSE has yet to confirm an official opening date for a 19-bed community nursing unit on the grounds of St Mary’s Health Campus on the northside of the city.

A HSE spokesperson, who in August said the beds were expected to come onstream before year-end, said: “The redesign of a unit within the Heather House Community Nursing Unit to develop a 19-bed dementia-friendly unit will offer further choice of long-term residential care for people with dementia in the Cork region.

“Work on the unit has been substantially completed with final equipping now in progress, to ensure that the care environment is in alignment with dementia-specific requirements, which promote our residents’ safety, security, and comfort.

“These matters will be addressed in the coming weeks, and the unit must be registered with the regulator.

“The application for registration is being finalised for submission.

“In summary, the timeline for when the building is expected to become operational is, in the main, dependent on successful registration of the unit.

“Once the unit is officially registered and adequate staffing levels are in place, we will be in a position to move residents into their new home.

“Staff, residents, their families, and the wider community will be kept updated on all developments in this regard.”

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould, to whom the information was provided, told The Echo: “We were told this unit would be open by the end of the year. What we’re hearing now is that registration needs to happen, and it’s not clear whether staff have already been recruited.

“This is particularly damning given the ESRI report showing we’d need an additional 4,000 beds by 2040 in Cork and Kerry. How can we trust Government to deliver on this when they can’t deliver 19 beds in Heather House?”

Mr Gould said he has been contacted by a number of people whose loved ones were on the waiting list for the unit.

“They are either overwhelmed with trying to care for their loved ones at home, or their family members are in nursing homes miles away.”