More than one in 10 public nursing home beds in Cork and Kerry currently closed

Over one in 10 public nursing home beds in Cork and Kerry are closed, and staffing in the sector has fallen considerably since January.

HSE figures show that in the region, there are currently 1,007 long-stay beds open and 87 temporarily closed, while there are 214 short-stay beds open and 55 closed — meaning 142 out of 1,221, or more than 11%, of the beds are currently closed in CHO4, which comprises Cork and Kerry.

Hiqa regulations mean that building works are ongoing in a number of facilities, with a HSE spokesperson explaining “where works are being carried out, bed numbers may be temporarily impacted”.

Factors

The HSE clarified that “the bed numbers provided illustrate what is available at a particular moment in time and are subject to change”, adding that a range of factors including infection prevention and control, refurbishment works, and staffing can impact capacity.

There are also 94 designated short-stay beds for respite in publicly-managed older-persons residential units, with the HSE clarifying that these figures “do not take into account respite beds sourced through contractual arrangement with voluntary and private providers”.

The HSE figures also show that staffing numbers have dropped over the last six months. Between January 2024 and July 2024, the sector was down 28.7 whole time equivalents (WTEs) — a measurement used to quantify how many full- or part-time employees add up to full-time employment.

“The HSE is operating in a very competitive global recruitment market and we continue to work to ensure we maximise retention across our community hospitals and maintain extensive recruitment efforts to build the appropriate workforce pipelines to meet the future needs of this sector,” the spokesperson said.

“The HSE is committed to continuously reviewing our services in line with population health planning and Sláintecare principles and to maximising all available supports for older persons in this region.”

The figures were provided by the HSE to Sinn Fein TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould.

Idle

Mr Gould, who recently highlighted issues around home help support, said these issues are “forcing” Cork people into nursing homes, but “at the same time, 11% of public nursing home beds are temporarily closed”.

“We have situations, like in Blarney, where the HSE spent millions renovating a building, only for it to sit idle for months on end. That is not just poor planning, it is a joke,” he said.

“At the same time, our hospitals are full of people waiting to access nursing homes. Many of these people are ready to leave hospital, but lack of capacity is preventing this.”

On Wednesday, there were 64 Cork hospital patients classified as delayed transfers of care, a term meaning patients ready for discharge/transfer, having completed their acute inpatient hospital care, but are still occupying a bed designated for such care.

Some 44 of these were in CUH, higher than any other hospital in Ireland, as well as 10 in Bantry General Hospital, seven in the Mercy, two in Mallow General Hospital, and one in South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital.