Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

Last Friday, I attended the opening of a nursing home in my constituency. It is one of a number of new facilities that have been developed recently and more are planned. This is evidence of the growing need to make provision for our elderly. It is a major step for frail people or elderly couples to leave their homes, move away from the neighbourhoods with which they are familiar and move into nursing homes. However, I fear many of them are moving into an environment that more closely resembles a hospital than a nursing or retirement home. I have noticed a fundamental change in nursing homes due to the shortage of hospital beds. The ratio of high dependency patients is growing continually. I do not refer to people with conditions such as dementia, but to people who are attached to drips and who undergo ongoing acute treatment of the kind one would expect to see in a hospital. Higher proportions of people with acute illnesses affect the social environment and create a higher risk of infection.

Members must understand that terms such as step-down facilities also have consequences. While medical consequences must be anticipated and responded to, social consequences are as important if elderly people are to enter retirement homes to live out their lives. This implies good levels of activity and social interaction, which become difficult with disproportionate numbers of people who are very ill.

I support the motion before the House, which seeks a patient safety authority. I have heard words such as "robust" used in respect of the so-called new arrangements. Unless new arrangements are backed by defined standards, the availability of adequate resources and accountability when failures occur, cases such as Leas Cross will continue to arise. There must be a separate agency to police standards.

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