Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In the short space of time available, I would like to make some observations. Although Mr. Reid continually repeats that we need to learn from what has happened in our nursing homes, the submissions seem to suggest that there were basically no mistakes, no delays in acting and no errors in dealing with the virus in the homes and that everything that could have been done was done at the right time. I do not believe this narrative. I struggle to see how the Department, the HSE and HIQA can say that they made no mistakes, or if they do not admit that mistakes were made, how they can possibly learn in time for a possible second outbreak of the virus.

That narrative is contradicted by some of the facts, such as the overall higher proportion of deaths in our nursing homes. It is also contradicted by my experience and that of other Deputies who were contacted repeatedly throughout March and April by members of staff and the families of people in those nursing homes. They were in absolute despair about the provision and use of PPE and the lack of testing for themselves and patients. At a briefing on 12 March, I asked if workers who look after our elderly were being tested. I was bluntly told that we do not do that. We are now beginning large-scale testing because we believe it is the best thing to do. If it we did not have the capacity at the time, that should have been the answer, not an assertion that we do not do that. I am not a healthcare professional but testing those working in the homes seemed eminently sensible to me. We were told that the virus was not brought into the homes by the patients because they were being isolated, which I do not accept. It did not come in with visitors because the homes were closed to visitors. Clearly it was coming in with the carers, and they were not being tested.

I refer to the issue of PPE. Although PPE was provided in large quantities, until 22 April the HSE guidelines instructed that members of staff should not wear masks unless they were showing symptoms. We now know that this was crazy advice. It was only withdrawn on 22 April. Now all members of staff wear masks regardless of whether they are symptomatic.

I turn to my question, about which I am always going to wonder unless there is an independent public inquiry into the level of care in the nursing homes, which I believe is needed. Very few people who contracted the virus and became very ill received care in emergency department or acute hospital settings. I know the answer to that point concerns the end-of-life care plan, etc. However, our nursing homes were without sufficient PPE and had low-paid staff who were not properly trained. Some 80% of them are run on a for-profit basis. I cannot help wondering if they were the best places to care for our elderly when their workers were screaming about the lack of facilities and PPE.

I agree with Mr. Breslin about one lesson that can be drawn from this. We cannot continue to have a split of 80% private nursing homes to 20% public nursing homes in this country.

We need to learn the lesson that the State should take responsibility for the care of our elderly. These people have worked and paid taxes all their lives. They do not deserve to be hived off to a for-profit system. Just because the State contracts out care, it is not absolved of its responsibility for the care of the elderly. That was clearly shown in the context of CervicalCheck and the Ruth Morrissey case. The State still has responsibility when things go wrong, even when it has contracted out care.

Staff in care homes have contacted me today to say that patients are coming in without being isolated and tested in advance. Many questions still need to be asked about what is going on.

St. Mary's centre in Telford is a nursing home for the visually impaired that has had no cases of Covid-19. I understand the centre is run by the Religious Sisters of Charity and is due to be closed. I have asked the Minister if the State will take over this facility and run it in the interests of public medicine for those who are visually impaired and elderly. The Minister told me bluntly that this was a matter for the board. That does not indicate to me that anybody in the Department of Health has learned lessons from the catastrophe of the privatised nature of the care for our elderly. If we want a testimony to those who died in nursing home settings throughout the country and those who looked after them, taking St. Mary's in Telford into State ownership would be a way to begin. We must stop the nonsense of contracting out the care of our vulnerable people.