HEALTH AUTHORITIES will face major challenges in upgrading public nursing homes to meet new care standards after it emerged that more than a quarter of all such facilities are more than 120 years old.
New standards to be enforced by the Health Information Quality Authority will end the use of open wards for residents within six years. Other requirements relate to minimum bedroom sizes, en- suite facilities and limits on numbers of patients to each ward.
However, research by the Health Service Executive (HSE) has revealed that 27 per cent of all public facilities for older people are more than 120 years old. A further 25 per cent are 40-120 years old and 28 per cent are 20-40 years old. Many of these facilities still have open wards and will fail to meet new standards, unless they are radically altered.
The new standards also stipulate that there should be a maximum of two residents to a bedroom, or six in the cases of high-dependency residents who need 24-hour nursing care.
A lead-in time of six years will be provided to allow nursing homes to comply with the standards, but this may be extended on a case-by-case basis if costed plans with timescales are agreed with the authority's chief inspector.
The HSE has commissioned an audit of all its community units to identify facilities that will not comply with the new standards.
Officials will then decide whether they should be refurbished or replaced entirely.
In particular, there is concern over a number of publicly run facilities in Dublin such as St Mary's Hospital in the Phoenix Park, which is the largest public long-stay institution for older people. The 320-bed hospital has several large wards in a complex of buildings, parts of which were built well over a century ago.
A HSE spokesman confirmed that a major capital investment programme would be needed to modernise or replace unsuitable buildings. He said the health authorities were waiting for the new regulations to be signed into law before deciding on a timeframe for the upgrading programme.
It is understood the HSE lobbied to have more time to allow its nursing homes to meet the new standards. The lead-in time in the authority's draft standards was changed from five years to six years in the final report, while a clause allowing for this period to be extended on a case-by-case basis was also inserted.
A spokesman for the authority said the standards needed to be realistic, while ensuring the rights of residents to safe and secure caring environment are respected.
"This is not about imposing standards which cannot be reached," he said. "This is about working in partnership to ensure we can secure the best possible standards of care."
The standards are due to be signed into law later this year by Minister for Health Mary Harney.
