Fair Deal scheme funding needs to be changed 'to save our nursing homes', says body
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The Fair Deal funding scheme for nursing homes needs to be fixed as it pays €33,000 on average less per private or voluntary resident than for HSE residents, Nursing Homes Ireland has said.
A billboard campaign, launching on Wednesday, calls for immediate changes in how this scheme is funded, saying this is needed to “save our nursing homes”.
Around 80% of nursing home residents live in private nursing homes with the proportion of public nursing home beds dropping every year, previous studies have found. NHI analysis shows that 77 nursing homes have closed since 2018 leading to a loss of over 2,800 beds in local communities.
It links this to the pricing difference in the funding awarded to public nursing homes compared to private or voluntary under the Nursing Homes Support Scheme — more usually referred to as the Fair Deal.
“It’s not fair private and voluntary nursing homes residents receive, on average, €650 less per bed, per week, than those in HSE/public nursing homes,” the representative body said. “This is an average of €33,800 per resident, per year.”
They added this has an unfair impact on residents and in some cases has led to closures. The funding gap also impacts on how much private homes can pay staff, NHI said.
Tadhg Daly, its chief executive, said: “Our issue is the pricing mechanism is broken because it is not reflective of the true cost of care.”
The billboard campaign comes after warnings from the regulator Hiqa and think-tank the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) about closures of smaller nursing homes — whether public or private — in rural areas.
Last December Hiqa warned: “Throughout 2022, we have seen a continued trend of smaller nursing homes closing. While the closures have been across the country, more rural areas have been most impacted.”
In January, the ESRI said almost one in five of all smaller private nursing homes closed, mainly in rural areas, and almost 700 beds closed in public homes between February 2020 and December 2022. The ESRI also raised concerns about the dominance in the private market of a small number of large operators.
Budget 2025 allocated net additional €72.2m to the scheme including €10m for premises upgrade funding.