Families of residents living in a nursing home in Cherry Orchard Hospital in Dublin, have reiterated calls on the HSE not to move their loved ones to a private nursing home facility in Clondalkin.
A decision was made to move 68 residents after the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found the floors of two units in Cherry Orchard were a health and safety hazard.
One of the residents has been living at the facility for 17 years.
Families have been protesting outside Cherry Orchard Hospital since early November, when they were given 12 days' notice of the move.
Since then, five residents of the Willow/Sycamore Units have passed away "due to natural decline" according to the HSE.
Twenty residents have moved to Clondalkin so far and 43 remain at the Cherry Orchard site.
Families want them to be kept on the Cherry Orchard campus because they say many will find it too difficult to cope with a new environment and new staff.
The HSE has said all residents will be invited to return to Cherry Orchard once the renovation works are complete, however protesters believe their parents and grandparents will not survive the move.
Christine Marten's mother has been in Cherry Orchard for six years and requires continuity of care as she has "end stage dementia".
The staff that work with Christine's mother are the same staff that admitted her to the home six years ago. If her mother moves now "it will kill her", according to Ms Marten.
The wider impact of the move to Clondalkin has also impacted her father who is 87-years-old.
"He’s been so unwell over the last seven weeks. The amount of stress he’s been put under, fearing she would die in this move," she said.
A briefing paper by the Multidisciplinary Team at the HSE Hospital which was sent to HIQA in August, highlighted staff concerns over the consequences of moving residents.
The document which was procured by the families through Freedom of Information and seen by RTÉ News, said that "an off-site decant" for the existing 79 residents (which were the numbers cited at that stage) would be "a clinical risk, with potential high mortality rates".
In response to the briefing paper, the HSE said it reviewed several phased plans which would enable 68 residents to remain on the campus during the renovation works.
However, it said that given the nature of the works required, a single phased plan (to progress the units at the same time) was being implemented due to the safety risk associated with the flooring units.
While the families understand that there is a health and safety risk in the units, they have read documentation of the meetings between HIQA and the HSE.
They discovered that there were vacant beds within the facility which they believe could facilitate family members moving around the campus.
The HSE has said there is insufficient capacity on the campus to cater for the relocation of residents from both units and vacant units there are not immediately habitable.
However, HIQA had raised concerns over health and safety in the two units for a number of years.
Families say they cannot understand why the other vacant units on the campus were not renovated sooner to enable residents to stay on the site.
They also say residents were not afforded the benefit of the Assisted Decision Making Act (ADM), which became law in April this year.
ADM centres around supporting decision-making and a person’s capacity to make those decisions. It applies to everyone in the State.
Families say the law was not adhered to because the HSE made the decision to move residents without consultation.
Asked if the Assisted Decision Making Act was considered in the arrangements, the HSE said the decision to temporarily close the Willow and Sycamore Units in Cherry Orchard Hospital was to address "current safety risks associated with the flooring in these units".
It said its older person services would support residents and their families with the temporary relocation using "the principles" of ADM.
Maria Stynes says her grandfather, who is 96, cannot understand why he has not got a choice regarding the move.
On the verge of tears, she says he has became "quite poorly", since learning of the move.
Ms Stynes and her family have had discussions with doctors about whether they will be able to "keep him alive", because "he has lost the will" to live.
"He’s from this area, he built this area, he volunteered in this community for 42 years as a Peace Commissioner," she said.
"He wants to live in Ballyfermot, it’s his home, he doesn't want to be taken anywhere else, he doesn't understand why nobody is giving him a choice".
Geraldine Higgins says her mother is the longest resident at the facility because of the staff.
She points out that she may get emotional talking about her her mother, who has Louis Body dementia, because "she is not doing too well" right now.
"All of this that’s going on, she does listen and does understand a certain amount, she’s able feed off my emotions and my stress," she said.
Ms Higgins believes the way the matter has been handled by the HSE "is wrong".
"Why can't they get the other units ready and move them with the staff?" she asked.
"It’s the staff that are important. The staff for my mum are her family."
The HSE has said the vacant units would require significant building upgrade works and registration by HIQA before any residents could be relocated to those units, however, families believe this should have happened before it got to the point of protest.
Advocacy group Care Champions has been supporting families since they got notice that residents would be "evicted".
Spokesperson Margo Hannon pointed out that the residents, many of whom are at the end of life, were not spoken to about the decision.
This, according to Care Champions, means that the HSE "blatantly disregarded" the Assisted Decision-Making Capacity Law, enacted last April.
Care Champions say documentation shows the decision to move the residents was made seven months ago, yet it says, they were only given 12 days' notice that they would be leaving their home.
The law in question applies when a decision is being made, according to Ms Hannon.
"Not seven months down the line when the decision is already made, and they’re not given any choice about a decision that affects their life," she said.
Ms Hannon says studies have shown that 'transfer trauma’, particularly for older people and those with dementia, results in an increased risk of mortality.
"The HSE took a construction decision because it was more efficient to do this work and move all the patients from the two units off campus, off site, without the staff that know them, and know their intimate care needs, while there’s a Covid outbreak also in these two units," she said.
The HSE Communications Officer for CHO7 said no further residents would transfer until HSE Public Health confirms that there’s "no ongoing Covid risk".
* Since the publication of this article, RTÉ News has learned that Geraldine Higgins' mother has passed away.
