Government accused of ignoring nursing home crisis as 750 public beds lost
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The Government has been accused of ignoring an escalating crisis in nursing homes as over 750 beds have been lost from long-term public facilities.
According to figures from the HSE, there have been 11 public nursing homes either shut or downgraded since 2019, with Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadhg Daly saying it is likely due to Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) standards not being met.
Public nursing homes, which represent around 15% of the total bed capacity in the sector, have steadily lost beds over the last four years.
Since 2019, a total of 754 beds were downgraded or lost entirely from public nursing homes. Downgrading of homes means that, rather than closing, they become short-stay nursing homes.
Mr Daly said that, set alongside private and voluntary nursing home closures, the nursing home sector requires further support from the Government.
“The Government is ignoring a real crisis in nursing,” Mr Daly said. “The sector is on its knees at the moment.”
A PwC report published at the end of May found that 31 private and voluntary nursing homes had been shut over the last three years, with the loss of 915 beds.
Among its findings were that the cost of operating a nursing home has risen by 36% and that a third of all public nursing homes had posted a loss last year.
“We have a Government that is blind to the fact that 33% of private nursing homes lost money last year,” Mr Daly said, adding that, despite the closures, public nursing homes are better resourced than private nursing homes.
Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane said private sector nursing homes are starting to become unviable and said that the sector needs additional funding.
“The Government has created the circumstances where we are relying on the private sector, which is now becoming unviable,” Mr Cullinane said.
Mr Cullinane said that there needs to be a “quid pro quo” for increased funding to private operators, adding they would need to deliver on better standards and higher pay for staff.
He also said there needs to be a review of the Fair Deal scheme to address the “real pressures” within the private sector.
Concerns about the scheme were first raised by Hiqa in a report in 2021, when it flagged that Fair Deal was not providing enough funding to nursing homes.
In particular, Mr Cullinane has raised concerns over the HSE’s failure to replace the closed nursing homes with new facilities.
“None of the public homes that have closed have been replaced. That’s a lot of public beds gone,” Mr Cullinane said.
He added that it is “not acceptable” that the beds are not replaced and called for the Government to implement a large scale building programme for public nursing homes.