Protesters picket Micheál Martin's Cork office as nursing home leaves Fair Deal Scheme
Julianne Tánaiste Ann And Constituency Coughlan — To Relatives Friends In Residents Mcsweeney, Office At O'herlihy Anne Jim Protest Siobhan And Moynihan, Of Micheál Lee, Garvey Of The (left Martin Right) Cork Residential Beaumount Boyle, Marian Care Picture: Paula
"We want our loved ones to be able to live their final days with dignity, in the place they know as home."
Those were the words of one protester gathered outside the constituency office of Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Monday, as dozens of families called for the intervention of three of Cork's ministers in a nursing home’s leaving the Fair Deal Scheme, which they say threatens to uproot many of their loved ones who are ill with advanced dementia, Alzheimer's, and other severe ailments.
The families of more than 70 residents of Beaumont Residential Care on Cork's southside say that they were informed by operator Care Choice management last Thursday that it was compelled to leave the Fair Deal Scheme under which the HSE pays a portion of a person’s nursing home fees.
Stressing it has no quarrel with Care Choice management, the families instead have focused their anger at the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF), which decided the fair deal rates.
Care Choice told them that they have received on average an extra €16 per resident per week in their Cork homes, significantly lower than the €183 extra per resident per week in publicly run HSE homes. The home will remain open, but will no longer remain in the Fair Deal scheme from May 30.
The families said their protest at the Tánaiste's office was the opening salvo in forcing an intervention by Mr Martin, as well as fellow Cork ministers Michael McGrath and Simon Coveney, claiming the NTPF has ignored requests to discuss the situation.
Anne Rogers, whose mother Bríd Rogers is an 88-year-old resident of Beaumont with severe dementia, said the protest was designed to galvanise families as well as political leaders to resolve the issue.
"Our loved ones are not just statistics of older people with dementia and Alzheimer's, they are real people with families and loved ones who are heartbroken that they may be forced to leave the place they call home in recent years.
"Care Choice have been brilliant carers, our dispute is not with them. The staff in Beaumont have become like family. My mother Bríd has been there for seven years, she is non-verbal and doesn't recognise family members like me anymore, but she absolutely knows she is safe with Beaumont staff.
"She knows her room, she knows the staff, it is her home. She may be non-verbal now, but when one of the staff touches her hand, she beams. They are so kind. It seems inhuman to take that away from her if she is forced to move because of funding issues.
"We want our loved ones to be able to live their final days with dignity, in the place they know as home," she said.
The NTPF said Under Section 41 of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009, the NTPF is the designated body to agree maximum prices with private and voluntary nursing homes for the purpose of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme. However, it said it does not comment on its negotiations with individual nursing homes.