LIFFORD hospital is to close for four months before reopening as a respite and short stay facility.
The development marks the end of long-term patients being admitted to the unit.
The closure will enable the HSE to carry out €0.5m renovations to prepare the building for its new function.
Concerns had been awakened in recent weeks following the news that respite services were being withdrawn and that staff were to be redeployed.
But campaign group Friends of Lifford Hospital has been informed the postponement of respite is to facilitate work on the building’s roof, its fire safety systems and other areas to bring it up to the necessary standard.
According to the HSE the refurbishment will take between three and four months but that is dependent on factors including the pandemic and the availability of materials due to Brexit.
At the moment there are four patients still in the hospital however they are expected to be discharged or moved within days.
Friends of Lifford Hospital chairman John Quinn said they have engaged with the HSE on the plans and have been assured the unit’s future is secure.
“The last long-term patient passed away recently so the hospital has lost the licence it needs to take in more people on a long-stay basis.
“That means there will be no more long-term patients in Lifford but what the HSE intends to do is use it as a short stay and respite centre something similar to Donegal Town Community Hospital,” Mr Quinn said.
The withdrawal of long-term admissions marks the end of an era for a facility first opened in 1773. At its height in the early 1900s Lifford hospital took in an average of 400 patients per year while around 350 operations were carried out there annually.
Friends of Lifford Hospital has battled for over a decade to keep the medical centre’s doors open. John Quinn said they trust the HSE when they say services will recommence before the end of the year.
“We have to take them at their word,” he said.
“But it’s not about us trusting them because at the end of the day they will have to face the music if they back track on this. It will come back on them with a vengeance if they do that but as things stand I am inclined to believe what we are being told.
“Within our group there are different views but the way we are looking at it is at least the doors are open and the hospital is not being locked up.”
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