Closure of Millbrook Hospital is a Big Loss to Bandon
Issued : Sunday 25 July, 2010
Labour Party Town Councillor for Bandon, Gearóid Buckley, has expressed concern and disappointment at the news of the imminent closure of Millbrook Hospital. The closure comes as a result of a HSE/HIQUA audit. It has been confirmed that it will not re-open as a functioning hospital.
Cllr. Buckley said, ‘The Millbrook Hospital has served the town of Bandon for generations. Many Bandonians were actually born in the hospital. Up to quite recently the hospital offered a range of health services including an X-Ray department. However, in the past few years it played a highly valuable role as a nursing and convalescent home. The loss of this vital facility is very disappointing for the local community. The current patients will have to be allocated beds in nursing homes outside of the town, which also means they will be further away from family and relations.
‘The closure will put added pressure on the already limited bed capacity in Community Hospital. The promises of the HSE to enhance community medical services must now be realised through the immediate extension of Bandon Community Hospital. It is a great pity that Millbrook will not re-open but the priority now must be to ensure that the Community Hospital has sufficient beds and services to cater for the local population.
‘Bandon is the largest town in West Cork yet it has always lagged behind in terms of hospital bed capacity. The town deserves and the people demand that the care facilities within the community be upgraded to provide security and care for those in need, particularly our elderly.
‘The Matron and staff of the Community Hospital do fantastic work week in week out. But the conditions are difficult and space is very limited. In this day and age, it is simply not good enough. The staff and patients deserve better.
‘I recently brought a motion to the Town Council calling on the HSE to provide the necessary capital funding for the extension of Bandon Community Hospital. The HSE South confirmed that the extension at Bandon Community Hospital is to provide 17 additional care beds to bring the bed complement to a total of 40. The initial planning application was lodged in May 2008. The final planning permission for a new access road to the Community Hospital via by-pass road was notified to HSE South on 30th December 2008.’
Cllr. Buckley concluded, ‘It is now time for the project to proceed without any further delay. I am calling on the Government and the HSE to expedite this much needed and much promised development.’ Professor Brendan Drumm, CEO of HSE stated on RTE 6pm news on Sunday, 25th July 2010 that the continued development of ‘Primary Care Services’ was a compulsory strategy of HSE planning and that this approach could not be constrained by any future budget cutbacks. Surely, community hospitals, day care centres and nursing homes must be to the forefront of primary care services within communities.
‘It is now time for the HSE and the government to deliver immediately on this strategy for Bandon.’
ENDS
Cllr 
