'Save St Brendan's' launched in Mulranny

As the rain beats against the window of St Brendan's Nursing Unit in Mulranny, the mood inside is as grey as the weather. Twenty-five years after it first opened to allow elderly people in the area the chance to live close to their own homes, St Brendan's like so many small nursing homes in Ireland faces a very uncertain future.

When St Brendan's opened its doors in 1998, it started off as a 36 bed facility but regulations on room occupancy meant that the bed capacity has been reduced to 24. This has seriously affected its income model to the point where they now have to develop two new rooms to bring the capacity up to 26 beds to make the centre financially viable.

St Brendan's still have to find the finances to complete this work but to make matters worse they are after completing compulsory fire safety works on the building which will cost over €250,000 and they are still paying off a hefty agency nursing bill imposed during Covid.

It has meant that for the first time in 25 years there is a real chance that without significant financial investment, St Brendan's Centre will not be able to remain open.

“I am losing sleep and people are losing sleep over trying to keep this place open by the fact we are being treated so unfairly,” said local GP and Chairperson of St Brendan's, who admitted to The Mayo News that things are looking fairly grim at the moment.

A campaign called 'Save St Brendan's' (see advert on page 8) has now been launched where a GoFundMe page has been set up and a number of fundraising campaigns are planned in the coming weeks.

St Brendan's, Dr Cowley explained, is a not for profit organisation but is classed as a private organisation and as a result receives 60 percent less Government funding than similar HSE-run nursing units, like the nearby St Fionnan's on Achill Island.

“We are classed as private but we are not private,” he explained. “We are a charity ... we are not for profit but we are classed as private and we are treated differently and done everything by ourselves with minimum support from anybody.”

Limited funding

With limited funding support, St Brendan's relies on the occupancy levels being high and at the moment 24 beds does not pay the bills and that is why they urgently need to increase the capacity to 26 beds.

“The HSE run units do the exact same work as we do and have the same residents but get 60 percent more funding than we do from the same Fair Deal scheme. We are the same as them but for one thing and that is they get 60 percent more funding than we do. The studies are there to show the costs for food and energy have all gone up as have staff wages. Is it any wonder we are in trouble?

“I think it is terrible and all we want is equality. We are under serious threat now. The legislation has said that we need to be operating from 24 rooms which we are operating at now and we need new rooms urgently. We have planning permission for two more and we are trying to get those built. Our income depends on the number of people in beds

“Our long term viability is being greatly threatened because we are not being treated equally. We are not private, we are not for profit but because we are not HSE we are classed as private. Non-HSE equals private but that is not true.

“We have been forgotten about and are the ones who have been left without a voice and are not being represented. We are the ones who want to keep going for another 25 years but will we be able to do that, that is the question,” he said.

St Brendan's currently has a weekly wage bill of €23,000 a week with many of the nurses brought in from India on two to three year contracts. Dr Cowley explained it costs €2,500 to bring those nurses into the country and they then have to train them into the system.

With a limited income stream, St Brendan's cannot offer the same employment terms as the HSE and Dr Cowley explained that after their contract is up, they are 'poached' by the HSE. “Who can blame them?” Dr Cowley admitted. “After the two years are up, we lose all our staff and the cycle starts all over again with €2,500 to get people over from India. It is the same as the Irish nurses who go off to the HSE because they get pensions and sick leave. The people who work here work hard and are lovely people but who wants to work with no pension or proper sick leave?”

Dr Jerry Cowley with Nora Carroll, a native of Belmullet who recently moved from London to live in St Brendan's Village in Mulranny

No Covid deaths

St Brendan's takes pride in the fact that during Covid they were one of very few nursing units in the country where none of their patients died from the disease. Led by their Director of Nursing, Trish Maguire, they operated a strict temperature testing procedure at the start of the pandemic before such practices became routine.

“We lost no patients during Covid but it nearly wiped us out,” Dr Cowley explained when it came to the centre's finances. “We built up debts during Covid. When our staff got Covid, we had to get agency staff in here. The money they got out of us is ridiculous and we are still trying to pay them.

“We are paying them off so much per week so we can keep this place afloat. Also for nine months during Covid we were not allowed to take additional residents which really affected our finances as it is critical we remain full.”

Dr Cowley stressed that St Brendan's will face up to their responsibilities of paying off what they owe but they need the help of the community to do this. St Brendan's he said along with the local hotel is the biggest employer in the village and has helped develop and inject investment into the village.

“We have helped people over the last 25 years and this is the time we need help to continue that for the next 25 years. The main thing is to keep us going but most of all to get these two rooms finished so we can be viable in the future. They are critical to make us viable.

“We faced up to the challenges but we need some equality and fairness and that is all we ask for. We are not getting it and we deserve fairness. We have given good service for the last 25 years and we want to continue to do that.

“It is not acceptable that I am losing sleep and people are losing sleep over trying to keep this place open by the fact we are being treated so unfairly. We are doing good work and keeping people locally where they want to be. Nobody wants to be anywhere else except in their own area and the reason we did it was out of need and the reason we are still doing it is because of need. If the need was not there we'd give up and go home and I would get on with my day job but we cannot because the need is still there and is worthwhile.

“We started this journey in 1994 and the reason was to support these older people who are the most vulnerable and had to leave this area. We did something about it, we are still doing something about it and we want to continue to do something about it for the next 25 years as well.”

To make a donation to St Brendan's clink on the link https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-st-brendans