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

I will ask two shorter questions. Have our guests any concerns? They have outlined clearly that there needs to be testing and have said that testing of patients who are moving from hospitals into nursing homes is happening and will happen.

Do the witnesses have concerns that, should patients in the nursing home sector become very ill, they may be moved to a hospital setting for acute care? Even though the witnesses are very optimistic about changing the model for the future, as we speak planning permission is being sought and, in many cases, granted for large-scale nursing homes across the country. I refer to big corporations that are building the sort of capacity that was spoken about earlier - units of 100 or 200 beds, which are not appropriate. How are we to change that? There is also the question of other bodies concerned with the care of the elderly, such as Age Action and Sage Advocacy, not believing the report deals with the questions of families and some staff with regard to what happened in the nursing homes. Would the witnesses agree that, although the group's terms of reference did not require it to look at these issues, another body of work is required to deal with the concerns of families as regards what happened to their loved ones?