Loss of 630 beds from Fair Deal criticised

THE CUTTING of 630 private beds from the Fair Deal nursing home scheme will mean longer delays for elderly people waiting for placements, Nursing Homes Ireland has said.

Tadhg Daly, chief executive of the organisation, which represents private and voluntary nursing homes, said they were angry with the decision to cut the beds.

Minister for Health James Reilly had reneged on commitments he made in the budget, Mr Daly claimed.

Some 130 private nursing home beds were cut from the Fair Deal nursing home scheme last month and 100 will be removed each month from April to August, the latest HSE performance report has said.

The cutback will take €13 million out of the scheme and divert it to a new “intermediate care” service aimed at elderly patients experiencing delays in discharge from acute hospitals. This new service will include 250 transitional care beds, 50 additional rehabilitation beds, additional home care packages and the development of specialised elderly care wards in acute hospitals.

The cuts come after the Minister for Health committed an additional €55 million to the Fair Deal scheme in his budget statement last December. The Minister had said the extra money would pay for 2,600 additional people who would need support “in acknowledgement of the fact that our older population is increasing”.

Mr Daly said yesterday the loss of 630 beds would lead to significant delays in the system, including delays in the freeing up of beds in acute hospitals.

He acknowledged 300 beds would be provided for intermediate care and rehabilitation, but said this would not be enough to deal with the growing elderly population. “In January alone, 920 new applicants applied for support under Fair Deal,” he said.

He called on the Minister to consult nursing home owners on the cutbacks and on the planned intermediate care service.

A spokesman for the Minister acknowledged that an additional €55 million was allocated to the nursing homes scheme for 2012, but said “this has been changed to better suit the real needs of older persons in society”.

The decision to reduce funding came “in the wake of analysis of a special report into care needs assessment”, which found it was possible 80 per cent of the people assessed for long-term residential care had not been considered for or provided with home care options.

“Minister Reilly has repeatedly expressed the view that as a society we have too readily allowed for older persons to be admitted into long-term care and he has stressed the need for an intermediate tier of facilities and services to ensure that the maximum number of older persons can remain in their home,” the spokesman said.