Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue of nursing home charges has been going on since 2019 when I first raised it with the HSE. Eventually, after much toing and froing, the executive stated it had sent a communication to nursing homes advising them that people in receipt of medical cards were entitled to the items they would ordinarily be entitled to if they were living in the community. Charges had been applied by nursing homes to people with medical cards for items such as wound management, ointments and painkillers, while there was a lack of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, which were not being applied. The HSE cc'd the committee and eventually told us that it sent a communication to nursing homes, but such charging is still happening.

I received a response to a freedom of information, FOI, request from, I think, the national director for the primary care reimbursement service. It stated, and this is in the officials' documents, that it would appear to be fairly clear that the primary place where an intervention could be put in to ensure that nursing home clients are not charged for items that would be covered under the medical card scheme would be via inserting a clause in the document between the HSE, the residential care facility, RCF, and nursing homes that actually states the requirement not to charge. Will the officials confirm whether the HSE has acted on that?