‘We will keep protesting until nursing home is given adequate funding' - Cork families call for resolution to funding crisis
Family members of residents in Beaumont Residential Care in Cork protested outside the Dáil today, calling for the Government to step in and ensure the nursing home has adequate funding.
It comes as family members of residents in Beaumont Residential Care in Cork protested outside the Dáil today, calling for the Government to step in and ensure the nursing home has adequate funding.
Anne Rogers, whose mother Bríd has been a resident of the nursing home since 2017, said they want a resolution.
“We are going to keep battling on,” she said. “We won’t give up, not until there is a resolution.
The Cork centre recently revealed it has no choice but to pull out of the Fair Deal scheme if payments continue at their current level.
The nursing home said it has been “forced by the actions and inactions of the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF)” to leave the scheme, under which the HSE funds a percentage of a resident’s nursing home fees.
Some 56 residents of the CareChoice facility are currently residing in Beaumont Residential Care under the scheme.
Ms Rogers said a coachload of residents' family members travelled to Dublin from Cork for the protest, where some of the group met with Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler.
"I don’t think that meeting was very forthcoming, but we feel our presence was really felt outside the Dáil," said Ms Rogers. "A lot of families were represented and for the ones who couldn’t travel, we represented them as well. We want a resolution to be found."
Ms Rogers explained the protesters were there to call for adequate funding for the CareChoice facility.
"We are there to support them and just be the face of the families," she said. "It is Beaumont today, but it will be another nursing home tomorrow or next week. While we are advocating for Beaumont residents, we are really trying to make the point that this is a crisis across the nursing home sector.
“It is not good enough for residents and families,” added Ms Rogers. “The thought they might be moved somewhere in Cork, Munster or Ireland is not good enough.
"We are protesting in Cork again next week and we will go again to the Dáil. We will keep protesting until CareChoice are given the adequate funding.”
Meanwhile, Cork-based CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly, said the funding crisis within the Fair Deal Scheme “is extremely serious in Cork”.
Nursing home representatives recently presented politicians with the findings of an independent PwC report into the funding crisis, which has already seen the closure of 31 nursing homes and 915 beds in the past three years.
The Nursing Homes Support Scheme (NHSS), or Fair Deal scheme, offers financial support for those being cared for long-term in nursing homes, whether they are public, private or voluntary.
Under the Fair Deal scheme, the person pays a certain amount towards the cost of care and the HSE pays the remainder.
However, in a report by HIQA in 2021, concerns were raised that the scheme "is not providing the same level of financial support to private and public nursing homes".
These findings were echoed by Nursing Homes Ireland, which claims that HSE nursing homes, on average, are receiving close to €800 extra funding per resident, per week, for nursing home care.
The Nursing Homes Ireland delegation which presented the findings of the PwC report to politicians recently included CareChoice Ballynoe, CareChoice Beaumont, Brookfield Care Centre, CareChoice Clonakilty, CareChoice Macroom, CareChoice Montenotte, Grange Con Nursing Home, and from Bishopscourt Nursing Home.
The report, commissioned by Nursing Homes Ireland, shows that nursing home closures are increasing rapidly despite their role becoming increasingly pivotal in the Irish healthcare system.
The report also outlines a number of recommendations to solve the crisis, including increased State funding for nursing homes and basing Fair Deal Rates on residents’ individual needs.
“The funding crisis for nursing homes is extremely serious in Cork, as it is across the country. Unless we see the Government taking urgent action on this and follow the recommendations in the PwC report, it is certain that we will see further nursing home closures,” Mr Daly said.
“This will result in elderly residents being forced to move out of their communities and away from their families.
“It will also result in greater pressure on our healthcare system as nursing homes facilitate the discharge of older persons from acute hospital settings either through long-term residential care or step-down rehabilitation, which frees up acute bed capacity.”
Mr Daly said that private and voluntary nursing homes are facing unsustainable pressure, which he said will have “dire consequences for Ireland’s ageing population”.
"More than 20 nursing homes have closed since the start of last year, due to rapidly rising costs and a variety of challenges including recruitment and increasingly complex resident profiles,” he said.
In the immediate term, the report recommends the provision of the necessary funding to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) to enable them to prevent further nursing home closures and to ensure that no more residents lose what is their home.
In the longer term, the report recommends reform of the Fair Deal Pricing mechanism to enable Fair Deal Rates to be based on resource allocation and residents’ individual care needs.
The Department of Health was contacted for comment.
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