The number of older people remaining in hospital despite being medically fit to be released will rise in the future unless there is a significant increase in nursing home beds, the sector’s representative body said. .
Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland pointed to recent research showing the number of long-term residential care beds and home supports for older people will need to increase by at least 60 per cent by 2040 to meet demand.
Long-stay bed requirements will grow from 2022’s figure of 29,579 beds to between 47,590 and 53,270 beds by 2040, a growth of between 61 and 80 per cent, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found.
Mr Daly said there were not enough new nursing home beds being constructed to meet these predictions.
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“There are two issues: we’re not building enough in terms of absolute numbers, but also the location. Demand for beds is quite high at the minute. Occupancy is at 93 to 94 per cent,” he said.
“I get calls from people all the time looking for a bed. I got one [call] recently – I’m in west Cork – and they were looking for one in Donegal because I work in the nursing home sector. It’s not universal, but if you were to ring around nursing homes you would struggle to get a bed for tomorrow morning.”
The Irish Times recently reported how access to nursing homes was the most common reasons for a patient’s discharge from hospital being delayed.
Mr Daly warned that this would get worse if new nursing homes are not built and increased homecare hours are not established.
“It’ll mean people cannot receive the care they need in their community and will have to travel. It will mean they will have to stay in acute hospitals for longer than they need,” he said.
“A significant number of older people won’t be able to receive the care they need where they need it.”
[ Nursing home beds and homecare hours ‘must rise by at least 60%’Opens in new window ]
Mr Daly was speaking in advance of the organisation’s annual conference on Thursday, which will focus on demographic challenges as well as safe staffing, technology, cultural diversity and tackling systemic ageism.
As well as increasing physical capacity, Mr Daly said there was also a need for investment in the workforce, describing nursing homes as a “changed landscape”, with workers requiring regular upskilling to meeting the increasing complexity of care as people live longer with multiple health conditions.
“We need to invest in people through education, training and career progression to ensure nursing home care remains high quality, person-centred and sustainable,” he said.
