Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the heart of this matter are 73 families who are extremely worried at this point in time. They do not know what the future holds for their loved ones. They do not know how they can possibly afford to pay for their care at Beaumont Residential Care without the fair deal scheme and they do not know where else they can find a place in a nursing home. As the Minister of State is aware, as it stands, Beaumont Residential Care is due to come out of the fair deal scheme in less than ten days, on 31 May, in about a week. Since that announcement was made, the reaction from the families of residents has been one of huge concern. The residents are overwhelmingly elderly and very often vulnerable. Several of them have dementia. The possibility of having to find another care home would be enormously disruptive. There is a huge shortage of care homes in the Cork area. For many of them, it is very difficult to find places. If we put that into context, we have a situation where there is enormous overcrowding in our hospitals. People trying to get discharged from hospital have very few places to go. To lose 73 beds from the care system in Cork would be enormously challenging for the system as a whole.

The key priority here is the 73 families who are affected. They have told me that they are very frustrated at what has happened since the announcement. CareChoice operates the nursing home. Its side of events is that there has been a serious lack of engagement from the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, and the HSE. CareChoice wishes to resolve the situation but the HSE and the NTPF have not engaged with it and have not been actively seeking to find solution in this regard. Were I to design a system of care for the elderly and vulnerable, it would not be the system we have. It would not be so heavily reliant on the private sector. It is not the optimum model but it is the system we have. While it is the system we have, we need to ensure that a reasonable subvention is paid to the care homes providing this care.

I accept that the Government needs to establish value for money. I ask that the HSE and the NTPF come back to the table with CareChoice. I am not saying they have to agree with everything that is put on the table. I understand that value for money has to be achieved for the public purse but they should at least engage. At this time, the sense from residents is that they have not been offered any support by the NTPF or the HSE and they have not been offered a way of resolving things. For what it is worth, in my own attempts to raise the issue and to be fair to the HSE locally, it forwarded on correspondence that I sent to the relevant people. I contacted the NTPF and when I asked for an email address, I was told there was no email address. It has not been very easy for me, as a public representative, to make my views known to the relevant organisation. I have submitted parliamentary questions and I am raising this matter with the Minister of State. I hope that she has more success in trying to chase this up with the NTPF.

The key thing here is the families. I understand that there has been a bit of back and forth between the HSE and CareChoice and all that. However, the key thing here is that these families and the residents, most of all, are supported and kept in place and that we find a solution. Can the Minister of State offer me, the residents and their relatives any positive news or encouragement as to how we might get a resolution in the tight timeframe we have?

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