Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The sooner it starts the better. We are going to pay for it. I wish to quote a text message I received from a cousin of mine, shortly after her father passed away in a nursing home:

Is it the case that nursing homes were hit so hard because patients, some already showing signs of Covid-19 were transferred out of hospital to free up beds? They were not only moved once – in some cases they were kept for 2 weeks in one home and transferred on. You can understand my alarm.

I received this message on 26 April. I indicated to my cousin that I would ask that question and I did. I asked HSE officials during a Zoom meeting. They said that the testing regime meant that nobody was transferred out until they had two negative test results. I asked the Minister about this in the Chamber at my next opportunity. I understand that work is ongoing and I appreciate that he has been talking to people in nursing homes. The reason I have quoted this text message to him is that I want to make it clear to him that families want answers.

Yesterday evidence was given by representatives of private nursing homes. The same issues exist in both public and the private homes. It seems that there was no plan. Mr. Tadhg Daly said: "The point we have been continuously making is that given the vulnerability of the age profile and the complexity of care of older persons, there should have been a national plan". He maintains that these people were categorised as low risk. On 10 March, a request was made to the HSE and the Department of Health for all patients to be tested, risk assessed and medically assessed. I cannot tell my cousin whether this was done, but I know what she believes. We have spoken about this several times.

Many of those families felt somewhat vindicated by what was said here yesterday. They had been told that this could not have happened, or had been shown graphs to show that it could not have happened that way. These families cannot be dismissed. They are real people. This family wants to know how this virus got into the nursing home when they could not visit their father. They had to wait outside. They observed all of the rules and they believe the staff did their best and followed best practice. However, on 10 March, when the nursing home sector was looking for guidance and assurance that people would be tested, it was not forthcoming. I note that there are now more than 400 delayed discharges in the acute hospital sector. There is a possibility that those people will be transferred en masse. Can the Minister make a commitment that in the event of this happening, this testing will be carried out?

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