Care 'crisis’ leads to elderly placed in nursing homes far from family

Elderly people are frequently being placed in nursing homes far away from their partners, an advocate for the elderly has said.

One woman has not seen her husband in seven months as she is unable to travel, and she cries herself to sleep every night due to the loneliness, according to Paddy O’Brien.

The HSE have acknowledged that there is “unfortunately” a shortage of public nursing homes beds in the Cork city area.

Cork-based advocate for the elderly Mr O’Brien told The Echo that there was a “crisis” amongst people from Cork city who had to go into long-term residential care.

“It’s a serious problem. In the last couple of years the HSE has been sending people down the country, they’re separating families. Elderly couples can’t visit each other, as often one is in the nursing home and the other can’t travel that far.

“Something must be done to rectify the awful situation that exists currently, whereby large numbers of senior citizens are sent to nursing homes several miles away from the city.

“Many senior citizens I speak to say their partner is in a nursing home 25 or 30 miles away from Cork city, and many are unable to travel to visit. One 80-year-old has not seen her husband for seven months. She is incapacitated so couldn't make the journey, even if she got a lift.

“She told me she is heartbroken and said she never knew what loneliness and sadness was until her husband was separated from her."

He said she cries herself to sleep and wakes in the morning wondering will she ever see him again. This is not an isolated case, he said.

Mr O’Brien added: “Some people that I spoke to were told this placement would only be short-term, but it was permanent – their partner never returned back.

“Separating husbands and wives when they are in their 70s, 80s or 90s, is totally un-Christian. Senior citizens do not want to be separated in their final days.

“One woman said to me: ‘Has the HSE ever heard of ‘til death do us part?’"

"Another man told me he didn’t know if his wife was alive or dead.” 

While he emphasised that the care these people was getting in nursing homes was to a very high standard, more must be done on the planning side, he said.

“The people affected by this awful arrangement have no voice, they can’t protest – they just want to be together.”

A HSE spokesperson told The Echo: “When an older person requires publicly-funded residential care, HSE South West does everything possible to provide suitable residential care as close to the person’s home as possible.

“Once a person has completed the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (or Fair Deal) process and has been approved for funding under the scheme, they can be added to the waiting list for any of our HSE residential units and will be offered a place in their turn when a vacancy arises, once the unit determines that they can deliver the specific care required.

“We can only allocate residential placements based on availability and there is unfortunately a well-recognised shortage of public nursing homes beds in the Cork city area,” they said.

“HSE South West acknowledges that it may not always be possible initially to find a placement as close to a person’s home and community as they would like but consideration is always given to each person’s individual circumstances in considering available placements.” 

They concluded: “HSE South West has been working to increase the quantity of public nursing home beds in Cork city.

“The 60-bed extension to Heather House in Gurranabraher has enhanced capacity in the city, and the new 105-bed Community Nursing Unit at St Finbarr’s Hospital, when completed, will offer further long-term residential care capacity. We will continue to work to maximise services and improve access to residential care for older people living in Cork city.”