St Conlon’s residents move into their new homes at Nenagh Community Nursing Unit

THE new 50-bed Nenagh Community Nursing Unit has opened to residents this week after the Health Information & Quality Authority issued formal registration of the  facility.

Opening of the purpose-built €23m centre at Tyone next to Nenagh Hospital was deferred last year to allow the unit to be used as a step-down sub-acute facility to help relieve the significant demand for inpatient beds at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

Nenagh CNU was developed by the HSE under the Department of Health’s Community Nursing Unit (CNU) Capital Programme, funded by Government through the National Development Plan. 

St Conlon’s residents will take up the first 25 beds in the unit, with the remaining 25 to be used for nursing home care.

Sandra Broderick, Regional Executive Officer, HSE Mid West, welcomed the opening of the new unit, which comes within days of the new 96-bed inpatient block being opened to patients at UHL: “I am truly grateful to the residents of St Conlon’s for their patience throughout the period they had to wait to move to their new home.” 

“I want to pay tribute also to the St Conlon’s staff who have continued to provide exceptional care to the residents and who are now transferring to the new CNU.”

Ms Broderick continued: “The decision to temporarily repurpose Nenagh CNU was a practical health measure, but it has had a hugely positive impact. It meant that fewer people experienced care on trolleys, and spent less time on trolleys overall in UHL. It meant that many older patients could be rehabilitated and go home to live independently, without premature admission to a nursing home.”

She added: “Over the past 18 months, as a sub-acute facility serving the region’s acute hospital sector, the unit played a vital role in relieving the pressure on UHL, helping to save almost 20,000 acute bed days. We are now focused on fully developing the HSE-led model of service delivery at Nenagh CNU, including long-term residential care services.”

“As the St Conlon’s residents move into their new homes, we are now focused on the phased opening of the unit’s remaining 25 beds for long-term residential care,” Ms Broderick concluded.