Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator raised a number of issues that are separate to this matter, but one particular issue does arise here.I am referring to the lack of flexibility in the system to acknowledge increased levels of care and this is where the difficulty arises. I am acutely aware that some nursing homes and care providers go above and beyond the call of duty. They do not just provide the standard level of care, they provide seriously enhanced levels of care. However, we have a standardised model of allocating funding to care homes that does not incentivise organisations. I am not speaking about a particular organisation, I am making a general point that the model does not incentivise carers and providers to up the level of care. We need to build in this flexibility.

The challenge we have is to build in more flexibility, tiers and levels into the payments to nursing homes based on the level of care. I have been trying to get this into the system and have had numerous meetings with Nursing Homes Ireland on it. If a nursing home goes way above and beyond the call of duty in providing activities, engagement, patient care and allied healthcare we have to have a way to fund it. A single assessment tool model is badly required. I communicated with the Secretary General of the Department this week about the urgent need for a single assessment tool so we can start building those blocks.

To move away from this debate, I do not know whether anybody in the House is familiar with what is provided for dementia patients in Bruff, County Limerick. It is very difficult to make ends meet there under the NTPF restricted model. The system does have this challenge that I must deal with and we are trying to deal with it. This is a symptom of the challenge that exists in the system.

I do not have the power to negotiate so I cannot go into detail on this and we must respect the ongoing process. There are two sides to it. I reiterate there are 430 nursing homes and care providers in the same process and they are not arising as an issue. We must acknowledge this, and that the NTPF is doing its job, notwithstanding this challenge.