Sir, – I refer to your incisive Editorial (April 25th).
While your points were well made, they do not take into account the biggest threat to residential care of older people in Ireland and that is the massive shortage of nursing home beds that is going to occur in the next 10 years. You correctly state only 5 per cent of the over-65 population requires nursing home care, but the recent census indicates this population is rising by 20,000 per annum, and as a result over the next 10 years another 10,000 nursing home beds will be required.
The Government is reducing its public nursing home bed provision as it is uneconomic to bring it up to the national minimum standards and this is the correct approach to ensure proper care for older people. In addition, the private sector has no access to finance to build new nursing home beds to meet the coming demand due to the uncertainty the banks have regarding the continuity of the Fair Deal funding scheme.
What the Government faces is a “perfect storm” in relation to long-term nursing home provision. The State is reducing beds and cannot afford to build new nursing home beds and the private sector cannot access finance to do the same. Unfortunately, the extra 1,000 older people per annum requiring nursing home beds in the next 10 years will end up in the acute hospital sector and therefore the coming problem will not only affect older people but younger people who require access to the same acute hospital beds.
The proposed Government review of the Fair Deal scheme will be a wasted exercise if it does not address the problem of future nursing home bed provision for a growing over-65 population. – Yours, etc,