From mid-July alternate arrangements, to ensure no patient or their family is left without a service, will operate due to staffing challenges.  Seven respite care beds, normally provided within Cherry Orchard, will be catered for by registered private nursing homes in the locality to ensure that patients in need of respite care can still avail of this over the summer period. Nine long-term patients will be moved from the Beech Unit to other beds within the Cherry Orchard campus to ensure minimal disruption to them and to ensure that their needs will continue to be met by Cherry Orchard staff. 

The Beech Unit, the smallest unit in the hospital with 16 beds, will reopen in October of this year. The HSE is conscious of the importance of the facilities at Cherry Orchard Hospital to patients, their carers and their families. We will continue to liaise with the families who will be affected by these changes to ensure that their needs and those of the patient can be met under the new arrangements. It is important to reiteratethat no patient or their family will be left without a service.

The HSE’s priority is on the continued provision of services for patients in an extremely challenging climate. The care management programme at Cherry Orchard Hospital has been designed to ensure that those in need of access to care, either respite or long-term, can continue to access appropriate care during the summer period.  The measures being taken for July, August and September are designed to ensure the impact on patients is limited, that services will continue to be provided during this period, and that the hospital can maintain the highest possible standards of care to patients within its approved resource allocation.

In any care facility during the peak summer season, with a significant number of staff on annual leave, a number on maternity leave and other leave, it is difficult to maintain the full range of services. The care management plan for Cherry Orchard ensures best use of resources at the hospital. The costs associated with the care management plan are less than the costs associated with the hiring of agency staff and/or overtime rates which would be required to keep the Beech Unit open during the summer period, which is important in the current economic environment.

Contracted beds in private nursing homes are an integral on-going part of the provision of both long term care and respite care nationally.

Cherry Orchard hospital has 192 beds dedicated for elderly care.