Alzheimer families feeling 'betrayed' as respite centre shuts
June 25 2009
OPPOSITION is growing over the latest hospital closure to hit the health service -- the summer shutting of a newly refurbished respite care unit at Cherry Orchard.
At least 25 families caring for elderly relatives including Alzheimer's sufferers will be affected by the imminent move by the HSE.
Fearing disruption to the respite services, they are mounting a protest campaign demanding that the closure of the Beech Unit be called off, and claiming they had been "betrayed" by the Government.
Families from Ballyfermot, Clondalkin and Palmerstown are all set to be affected and some patients claim they have been told to look for private care in homes in Harold's Cross and Lucan.
But the HSE denied that the unit would close "indefinitely", insisting it would be up and running as normal again in October. The Executive also said those who could not be relocated elsewhere in the hospital would be sent to nursing homes as close as possible to where they lived.
A protest was mounted outside the hospital gates on June 19. A public meeting will be held in Ballyfermot next Tuesday to discuss the planned cuts and to organise support.
Lesley Gaynor, one of the main organisers of the campaign, said he had been inundated with phone calls since the announcement was made.
godsend
Lesley and his family care for his father-in-law and mother-in-law in their house on Kylemore Road and he says the short breaks they get thanks to the respite care are "a godsend".
A spokesperson for the HSE blamed the closure on a combination of summer being "peak holiday period" and large numbers of staff being absent on maternity leave
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