Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Health the degree to which he can or will examine and compare the costs associated with the operation of public nursing homes as compared to the private sector given a similar patient profile in terms of mobility and nursing or medical care requirements with a view to ensuring the maximisation of available resources to the best advantage and with the objective of catering for the greatest possible number of patients notwithstanding the difficult economic situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1051/12]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The cost of care in public and private nursing homes is published on the HSE's website at: http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/Find_a_Service/Older_People_Services/nhss/costs.html

The HSE is committed to examining all options to maximise the resources available for nursing home care, e.g. skill mix, rostering arrangements and reconfiguration etc. It should be noted that the 2010 Long-Stay Activity Statistics, prepared by the Department of Health, indicate that at end-2010, 83.7% of residents in public nursing homes were of high and maximum dependency. In private nursing homes, 59.7% of residents were in the same category.

The Nursing Homes Support Scheme is due for review later this year. The scheme will have been in operation for three years at that stage and established and validated trends and statistics will be available in order to inform the work. The review will look at, amongst other issues:

the ongoing sustainability of the scheme,

the relative cost of public versus private provision,

the effectiveness of current methods of negotiating price in private and setting price in public nursing homes, and

the balance of funding between residential and community care.

Question No. 30 answered with Question No. 15.