Allocation of 50 new beds for Athy hospital being questioned by Cllr Fiona O'Loughlin

General Election candidate for South Kildare, Cllr Fiona O’Loughlin is questioning the announcement by Labour that St Vincent’s Nursing Home, Athy, will be allocated 50 replacement beds.

“Whilst I welcome development at St Vincent’s - an excellent facility catering for South Kildare - is this not the third such announcement from Labour over the past two years?” said Cllr O’Loughlin

She added: "In April 2014, Labour welcomed a feasibility study costing €75k on the procurement of a 100 bed unit for St Vincent’s and stated ‘The future of Athy’s St Vincent’s Hospital looks positive…’. Labour further issued a statement in February last year, stating the HSE had confirmed a new 100 bed facility was planned for St Vincent’s Hospital.This was in reply to a parliamentary question from Minster of Health, Leo Varadkar TD, which confirmed ‘the replacement of beds for St Vincent’s Athy is on the HSE Capital Plan’. St Vincent’s in Athy provides a very high service in nursing care, but the 40 year old building is not fit for purpose under HIQA standards and the facility urgently needs a new build to meet the required standards.Now here we are in January, 2016, with an election date to be announced any day and suddenly,  another announcement of beds for St Vincent’s Hospital makes it onto the media forum yet again – albeit this time, it’s only for 50 beds.  So, instead of hyping up the replacement of 50 beds, they should be announcing the loss of 50 beds previously committed!”