Written answers

Tuesday, 24 May 2016

Department of Health

Nursing Home Accommodation Provision

Photo of Jack ChambersJack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

438. To ask the Minister for Health the measures being undertaken to ensure bed availability for the significant cohort of the population that will require nursing home care in coming years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11377/16]

Photo of Jack ChambersJack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

440. To ask the Minister for Health if, following the commitment by the outgoing Minister of State at his Department in January 2016, he plans to bring stakeholders together through a forum that will consider and advise regarding the appropriate planning and policy required to sustain current provision and plan for substantial growth in requirement for nursing home care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11379/16]

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 438 and 440 together.

Residential care in Ireland is provided through a mix of public, voluntary and private provision. It is worth highlighting that the net budget for long-term residential care in 2016 is €940m and the Nursing Homes Support Scheme will support 23,450 clients (on average per week)- an increase of 649 clients per week on 2015 projections.

Public Nursing Units are an essential part of our national nursing home infrastructure. They provide 5,000 long stay residential care beds i.e. approximately 20% of the total stock of nursing home beds. They also provide about 2,000 short stay beds. €385 million in capital funding has been secured for a programme for the replacement and refurbishment of public nursing homes across the country over the next five years which will consolidate our existing public stock and is expected to provide 250 additional beds.

With regard to private facilities, it was announced in Budget 2016 that nursing home expansion works would henceforth be included in the Employment and Investment Incentive Scheme.

When the Nursing Homes Support Scheme commenced in 2009, a commitment was made that it would be reviewed after three years. This Review was published in July 2015 and identifies a number of key issues for more detailed consideration across Departments and Agencies. The Review recommends that the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) review the present pricing arrangements with a view to:

- Ensuring value for money and economy, with the lowest possible administrative cost for clients and the State and administrative burden for providers;

- Increasing the transparency of the pricing mechanism so that existing and potential investors can make as informed decisions as possible; and

- Ensuring that there is adequate residential capacity for those residents with more complex needs.

A Steering Committee has been established to oversee the review of the pricing system for private long-term residential care facilities. This Steering Committee is chaired by the NTPF and includes representatives from the Department of Health, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and the NTPF, and has commenced its work in this area.

On-going consultation with all stakeholders and the public in general is already a standard feature of our approach across policy issues. There is already a broad consensus on the direction that our approach to caring for older people should take, including the importance of allowing more older people to stay at home and in their own communities for as long as possible, the need to cater for people at the lowest appropriate level of complexity and the need to provide residential care when and if this is needed. The Programme for Government commits to increasing funding for Home Care Packages and Home Help year on year, additional funding for the NHSS and seeking ways to incentivise private nursing home investment and new supported living/assisted living arrangements.

The decisions that remain to be taken are therefore less about what we be need to do, but about how to do it. This relates in a large part to resourcing and balancing of priorities within the health sector and within Government overall. This is not an area that can be readily progressed by the kind of forum that is proposed by the Deputy. Further, it would be inappropriate to delegate elements of public policy, possibly including budgetary policy, to any consultative forum, particularly where some of those represented may have a commercial vested interest in the outcome.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.