Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome her to the House, along with the councillors who are present. We also have representatives from Ballinasloe who are part of that group, Séamus and Cathal, who have joined us and represent business groups in Ballinasloe.

The HSE came to the fore during the Covid crisis to support nursing homes with personal protective equipment for staff and oxygen. I know those supports continue but we have had nursing home closures in my area, including the 25-bed Stella Maris nursing home in Athlone and Tearmainn Bhríde nursing home in Brideswell. The family running the Tearmainn Bhríde nursing home had planning permission to expand it to 60 beds but could not get a financial partner to allow them do that. The nursing home in Kiltormer closed but is now being used for families fleeing Ukraine. In regional and rural areas, where the Minister of State is from, people want to stay close to home, the reason being they can have visits from their family. How can families visit if it is all going to be private nursing homes that are major providers with 100 or 200 beds in the middle of Galway, Dublin or Cork cities? What happens to all the people who are living in rural areas when their families cannot visit them? Is there any way that we as a State can look at how we can support networks of smaller private hospitals to come together for greater volumes and efficiencies in costs? We could look at supporting them to maintain their premises in local areas, while allowing cost efficiencies through their coming together and working together around recruitment.

So many of our rural nursing homes offer supports in the form of step-down facilities for our hospitals. If the Minister of State talks to the general manager of Portiuncula University Hospital, the majority of patients there are probably in their 70s and 80s. They are staying there because there is nowhere else for them to go. If beds are closing, and we are losing beds in 17 nursing homes that are closing, we need Sláintecare to support our hospitals, step-down facilities and primary care. We need to look at ways the HSE can think in a smart way about supporting these smaller nursing homes. Otherwise, we will lose them. We are losing them in our rural and regional areas and we are left with these major and, I know, very necessary larger nursing homes but these are, more than likely, in city centre locations. That will not benefit anyone in rural or regional areas. From that perspective, I ask the Minister of State to look at ways we can support smaller nursing homes.