Brídhaven Nursing Home: ‘We lose staff to better-paid HSE jobs’

"The last few years have been tough going. It's all been about cutting the fat off from the business," says Paul Rochford, who runs Brídhaven Nursing Home in Mallow, Co Cork.

With 157 beds, it is one of the largest privately-run homes in Ireland. The purpose-built facility is owned by Mr Rochford and his wife, with no outside investors “unless you count a large amount of bank loans”.

Over this time, costs have risen inexorably, he says.

Insurance premiums have trebled, but the biggest challenged is retaining staff.

Three out of every four staff who have left have gone to better-paid roles in HSE-run homes. “We’re effectively training staff to work in the HSE,” Mr Rochford said.

Wage costs at the home amount to €4.7 million a year – almost 70 per cent of turnover. “We’d love to be able to pay more, and to aspire towards a living wage for all staff, but we are up against State providers that are infinitely better funded than us.”

Fair Deal

Brídhaven gets a €1,000 a week subvention for each Fair Deal patient. The National Treatment Purchase Fund, which negotiates the rates for State-funded private nursing care, recently increased the subvention by €15 a week, or 1.5 per cent.

It is sometimes argued that private nursing homes are cheaper to run because their residents have lower levels of dependency than public homes, but Mr Rochford says this is no longer the case since the introduction of Fair Deal.

Some 88 per cent of his residents are either maximum or high dependency. He is currently renovating the oldest section of the home to increase room sizes in accordance with new regulations set by the Health Information and Quality Authority. HSE-run homes, many of them in outdated and cramped premises, are long due an upgrade but, as Mr Rochford points out, the Government last year “moved the goalposts” by extending the time they have to complete this work by many years.