Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 270: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will confirm that it is her policy or Health Service Executive policy that the costs levied by the Health Information Quality Authority for conducting industrial inspections in respect of each bed in a nursing home an a yearly basis, has to be paid by the patient, which currently costs €195 per bed per annum; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36893/09]

Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I understand the Deputy's question relates to the fees associated with the system of registering and inspecting nursing homes. As the Deputy is aware under the Health Act 2007, statutory responsibility is given to the Chief Inspector of Social Services, part of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) for inspecting and registering categories of centres, including nursing homes.

HIQA commenced the new system of registration and inspection on July 1st, 2009. This has, for the first time, introduced an independent system of inspection of both public and private nursing homes. The Authority's inspection process comprises three parts: pre-assessment, the inspection visit and report completion including a process of fact-checking and verification. Since July 1, the Authority has commenced 88 inspections. Of these, 46 were announced and 42 were unannounced visits. The average duration of inspection visits to date has been two days. Of the 88 inspection processes commenced, four have reached conclusion with the publication of reports. The remaining reports will be published shortly.

It is important that this new inspection regime is effective, robust, independent and properly resourced. In this regard the 2007 Act provides for the following fees:

Applications for registration or renewal of registration under Section 48. This section states that the applicant shall include with the application the prescribed application fee.

An annual fee payable by the registered provider under Section 99

A fee for variation or removal of any conditions of the registration under Section 52. A registered provider making an application under this section must include the fee with their application.

Following analysis of the types of centres, numbers of places, etc. it was decided to set a registration fee of €500, payable every 3 years by each nursing home together with an annual fee of €190 per place in each registered centre. It is estimated that the fee will represent an average weekly cost of €3.73 per registered place. The fees are payable by the registered provider (or in the case of applications for registration by the applicant, who for existing designated centres would normally be the registered provider). These fees are not due or payable by the resident or their family.

In addition article 28 of the Health Act 2007 (Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People) Regulations 2009 states that "(1) The registered provider shall agree a contract with the resident within one month of the admission of that resident to the designated centre.

(2) Such contract shall deal with the care and welfare of the resident in the designated centre and shall include details of the services to be provided for that resident and the fees to be charged." Therefore, only those fees, including any agreed increases, set out in the contract should be charged by the registered provider to the resident.