Sir, – I refer to Paul Cullen's report ("Fair Deal waiting list triples since January", October 28th) outlining the plight of some 2,100 older people awaiting admission to a nursing home as a result of the unconscionable delays in the Fair Deal scheme (also known as the Nursing Home Support Scheme).
A much larger problem relating to these delays is that a sizeable percentage of this older person cohort are languishing in acute hospital beds while being medically fit for discharge and that these beds are not available for acutely sick people.
There is a direct correlation between the number of sick people awaiting admission to acute hospitals being held on trollies in accident and emergency (A&E) departments and the number of older people occupying acute beds in these hospitals.
The solution to this growing problem does not just lie in an increase in Fair Deal funding to facilitate admission to nursing homes but must include a more advanced home care package scheme.
Having observed the growing A&E department problem over the last number of years, I suspect politicians will only act when their sick constituents arrive in their clinics when they are unable to gain admission to an acute hospital. – Yours, etc,
Dr JONATHON ROTH,
Limerick.