Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

I can go back to 21 years ago when my legal office and another legal office identified a major discrepancy where over 80% of people’s pensions were being deducted in public nursing homes. We identified that the health boards and the Department of Health did not have legislative powers to do that. As a result of that challenge, over in excess of €450 million had to be refunded to 20,000 families. That challenge subsequently led to the creation of the fair deal scheme. The whole idea of the fair deal scheme was that everyone would be treated equally first in regard to the financial payment and second in regards the care and support they would receive.

What we saw on “Prime Time Investigates” is not acceptable and must not be tolerated. All these are people who have worked, paid taxes and reared families. This is not the way to treat them in their final years. Management and owners have the prime responsibility. What we saw here was not the necessary care. Even care supports required for individuals were being rationed. This is not acceptable practice. We all have a part to play in the care of those who have gone before us in relation to how they and previous generations have built up this country and have contributed to our education system, to our local authorities and all the services we enjoy. They all played a part in that and it is important we give them their support when they need it. It is important we look at the whole issue of funding. For instance, at the moment, 80% of people in nursing homes are in private homes but they only get 60% of the funding whereas 20% are in public nursing homes which get 40% of the funding. In fact, the public nursing home receives €1,969 per bed per week where a private nursing home gets €1,206. Public is €1,969 and private is €1,206. That is a difference of €763. As well as the cost of staff and electricity that private nursing homes have to pay, they also pay commercial rates to local authorities as well as interest on loans that were taken out to build those nursing homes. Those are the costs they have. If we want to have an adequate system, we must provide adequate funding and make sure the staff employed in the private nursing homes are there in sufficient numbers and that they have adequate training and communication skills. It is so important for communicating with anyone who needs care, whether they are in a nursing home or hospital. They also need time to listen to those people they are caring for. Older people want to make sure they are being listened to. It is important we have the people with the necessary skills in relation to all the people they are caring for. It is also important we ensure there is adequate review of their medical needs and it is not a case of prescribing the same thing months after month without a proper review.

We need to make sure that is happening in our nursing homes and that the necessary support is provided. During Covid we were able to develop supports. It is an easy option for a nursing home to transfer someone into a hospital and take the burden off the nursing home. We set up teams from hospitals that would visit nursing homes. In one case of more than 350 people in nursing homes, there was a review by a medical team from the hospital. Only 20 of the 350 had to be transferred into hospital. We need to develop that to give support to the nursing homes as well to make sure we have proper and comprehensive healthcare available in nursing homes rather than transferring people into hospitals. I will mention one last example of a 97-year-old man who was transferred to a hospital from a nursing home. He died four hours later. I do not think that is acceptable. Care should have been provided in the nursing home and the supports need to be given to the nursing homes so that they can provide that care.

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