HSE says services to continue at Fahan health centre after concerns re-emerge

The Health Service Executive has said existing services will continue to be provided at Fahan health centre after concerns about its future re-emerged in recent days.

Concerns about the future of the centre emerged in March, with the HSE responding that there were no plans to move the public health nurse from the centre and that public health nurse services would continue to be provided there.  

Councillor Jack Murray, who raised the concerns in March, said he has since been made aware of patients being sent to Buncrana and Muff for nursing services. 

The HSE said in a statement that the centre remains open “and will continue to provide existing services”.

Despite the reassurances, Cllr Murray said he was “very sceptical” as he had been contacted by numerous people “who have been told they will need to travel to Buncrana and Muff going forward”. “For sick and elderly people, this is not acceptable,” he said.

He called on the HSE “to tell all those people that this will not now be the case and explain why this was said in the first place”.

“I'll now be asking for an actual long-term plan to retain the nurse in Fahan, and not vague utterances which are not providing the reassurance that people need,” he said.