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

There is a problem, which I raised at the Joint Committee on Health this week, with hospitals getting people into nursing homes because nursing homes are saying they need a higher degree of care than the basic level of care a nursing home patient requires, if there is such a thing. There is a problem in nursing homes when a person is admitted and they are quite mobile, but then two years later they need a higher degree of care and there is no process available to the nursing home to review the funding it is getting under the fair deal scheme. This is causing a huge problem for nursing homes now. As a result, there is a stand-off between the nursing homes and the hospitals where the nursing homes are saying that if the hospitals want them to take the patients, the fair deal funding is not adequate. As a result, many people are being left in hospital, which should not be happening. That is one of the problems we now have.