Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Professor Twomey referred earlier to the structure of the nursing home sector. Is it not the case that the sector developed in the way it has because we had a situation in the past where only one person in a household was working, whereas now, almost every family has both partners working and they are unable, therefore, to give support to their parents in the same way that was possible in the past? Another factor is that a lot of people have gone abroad and the type of family support that used to be there is no longer available. This lack of family support is one of the challenges we now have in trying to develop community support.

The other issue in regard to the structure of the nursing homes sector is that it was set up as a separate entity. For instance, I am aware that elderly people in nursing homes are required to attend outpatient departments in certain cases when it would be a very easy prospect for a medical person from the HSE to attend a nursing home on, say, a monthly basis to review the requirements of residents. That type of arrangement was never set up and there is no structure for the connection between the HSE and the private nursing home sector. As a result, we have ended up with the difficulty we now have in regard to the lack of connection between hospitals and the HSE, on the one hand, and the private nursing home sector.