‘WENEEDFULL-TIMENURSINGHOURS’
STUDENTS with profound special needs requiring roundthe-clock medical attention are being forced to miss days at the St Francis Special School in Beaufort as the HSE only provides general nursing hours there three days a week.
At least two students living in constant danger of medical emergencies cannot attend St Francis’ on Tuesdays and Thursdays - in the absence of general nursing care at the famous institution.
It’s one of the most pressing concerns for parents at a school that is noted for its excellence in special needs education and which has benefitted from a number of major developments in recent years.
Funded entirely by the Department of Education with the St John of God as its trustees, St Francis’ is dependant on the HSE to provide the vital medical assistance its students need.
While many students benefit from individual nurses, the general nursing service is crucial to the delivery of education at St Francis.
But at present it is provided only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and staffed by two part-time nurses.
Parents are also seriously concerned about the loss of physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy hours that occurred under the HSE’s ‘ reconfiguration’ plan they signed up to in 2013 on the understanding they were then given that it would have been fairer for all children in the mid-Kerry area - both for students of St Francis and those in mainstream schools with less profound needs.
“Our daughter Shauna had to have special botox injections in 2015 because of the loss of physio which kept her hands and arms from seizing up,” Kevin and Caitriona Flynn told The Kerryman this week.
They organised a special endof-term fun day at the school on Friday that was attended by just two of the County Councillors they invited - Sinn Féin’s Damian Quigg and Fianna Fáil’s John Francis Flynn, each of whom are to raise the issue of nursing hours at council level in the coming weeks.
“Two students are now missing school two days each week in the absence of a nurse,” Caitriona said. “One of the children who can’t attend on these days has a very serious medical condition that requires constant care. If a parent kept a child from school anywhere else there would be serious consequences,” Caitríona said.
Mary O’Mahony’s son Stephen (15) can suffer up to 30 seizures a day and attends five days a week, but the lack of nursing hours is far from ideal. “The staff are wonderful and while they are trained to give emergency medication I would prefer for their sake they wouldn’t because their sole responsibility should be in education. One day last week Stephen had a bad run and luckily a nurse was able to take him to her office to monitor him. But when that happens on a day without a nurse we have to travel over (from Castleisland) to collect him early.”
Principal Liam Twomey meanwhile said he hopes the HSE will honour the committement it gave him to provide full time hours by September.