Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are trying to keep ourselves fully alert.

I got a letter some time back from the husband of a worker in the private nursing home sector and another a few days ago. I will refer to an extract from it. It just shows the worry and upset that are out there and the concerns that need to be addressed. The nursing home in question is without masks. It had been promised a supply from the HSE weeks ago but as of yet has received nothing. This was on 4 April. The first letter states that the men and women, mothers and fathers, working in the nursing home are nervous and scared, not only for themselves but also for their patients and families. The staff are resigned to the fact that it is only a matter of time before they are infected. They are still working away and looking after their patients without face masks. This was just a couple of days ago.

Three weeks later, the care centre has three Covid-positive staff members and 19 Covid-positive patients and one dead, with another five staff out sick and at least 18 patients suspected to have Covid-19 and awaiting testing. The staff have still to date received no PPE from the HSE. The home has been in touch with the HSE and we are told it has no PPE for the nursing home. Three other nursing homes where this man's wife used to work and where she still has friends have said they have got no PPE from the HSE. Their children have not left the house in 37 days. It is not that they were afraid they would catch Covid-19 in their community but, rather, that they may have already caught it from their mother and may spread it. The staff in her nursing home are now under tremendous pressure, working in tremendous fear and understaffed. They must hand back used single-use face masks at the end of their shift for them to be cleaned and reused.

I ask the House to remember the scenes we saw from Italy, France and Spain of doctors and nurses struggling each and every day. Those scenes are happening here in Ireland right now, not in our hospitals but in our nursing homes, and it is the same for home help workers. I am getting texts - I presume other Members are - and mobile phone calls from people working as home helps who have not got any protective gear, and it is very upsetting for them. Right up until last night I got texts, and I received another this morning, to the effect that in areas of west Cork they were promised something and nothing arrived.

Nursing home workloads are immense at the moment and we must look at ways where application packs for the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, for extra assistance could be simplified. It is much better for directors and nurses to be dealing with residents and implementing advanced infection control procedures rather than projecting figures and spending time on paperwork. The scheme only covers fair deal residents and not private residents. These private residents should not be excluded.

Older people need to be supported to live independently in their own homes as long as they wish to do so. We have been fighting for this for many years. Previous Governments turned their backs on elderly people. The cuts to home care packages and home helps were unforgivable and the embargo on new home help hours has forced many people into nursing homes prematurely. This mistake cannot be repeated by future Governments. Sadly, as a result of Covid-19, we have seen the danger of dormitory-style accommodation for residents in some of our community hospitals in particular. Are HIQA standards being investigated in all community hospitals? Has there been investment to address the issue? What is the Government doing to incentivise Irish healthcare professionals who return from overseas? These are truly tremendous people, some of whom have come from very lucrative jobs, who have given up their whole lives to save lives here and help in the current crisis. What incentives at least exist to persuade them to remain in Ireland for the next five years?

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