Nursing homes and private healthcare

Sir, – Contrary to Diarmaid Ferriter’s suggestion (“Is it any wonder so many Irish people don’t want to end up in a nursing home?”, Opinion & Analysis, January 12th), private healthcare is not the problem with our health or social care system. From Australia to France and onto Ireland, private operators play a crucial role in enabling people to get vital surgeries, receive care at home and to live out their final days in comfort.

The discussion should not be about public versus private, it should be about partnership – taking the best solutions and ideas from both public and private entities and fusing them to create a society where care, in all its forms, is valued. All this should be underpinned by smart and adaptable regulation.

Over 20,000 people are supported to live independently in their own homes thanks to 10,000 carers employed by the private home care sector. There is, of course, room for improvement but it is the private sector that has pushed hardest for regulatory and legislative changes.

Let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture going down a “them versus us” route. Instead let’s collaborate and – at long last – get all types of care, including home care, working for those who need it most. – Yours, etc,

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JOSEPH MUSGRAVE,

CEO,

Home and Community Care Ireland,

Swords,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I refer to Diarmaid Ferriter’s article on nursing homes. It is another example of the erroneous proposition that when it comes to matters of health and care the State can always do things better than the private sector.

The cost of care to the State in the publicly run nursing homes is on average 40 per cent higher than in those which are run by private sector operators. Incredibly, that excess does not take account of the cost of rates and insurance which have to be paid by the privately run homes but are not charged to publicly run entities.

The cost increases granted by the Department of Health in respect of recent cost inflation to publicly run homes were 10 times those allowed to those in the private sector.

The reason smaller nursing homes are closing is because of the onerous obligations placed on them by the State without any recognition of the consequential cost.

Diarmaid Ferriter need have no concern about a power imbalance in favour of private sector homes. In fact, as a monopoly purchaser of services, the State has, as evidenced by recent trends, both the capability and the inclination to shut down hitherto viable operators.

There is no evidence to suggest that the quality of care is superior in the State-run sector.

Diarmaid Ferriter is correct to identify the increasing need as our elderly population grows, and I agree that a coherent and rational policy to provide the requisite capacity needs to be developed urgently.

Any such policy needs to recognise the current realities that there is little or no incremental investment in the sector precisely because the Department of Health and the HSE have made it impossible for even the most efficient private sector operators to provide the service on a sustainable basis. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL CAWLEY,

Delgany,

Co Wicklow.