Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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654. To ask the Minister for Health if he plans to increase payments to nursing homes under the National Treatment Purchase Fund to compensate for the higher payments due to health care assistants under the Medical Review and Assessment system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36063/24]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The processes and procedures of the Medical Review and Assessment Section is overseen by the Department of Social Protection and queries in respect of payments arising from those processes and procedures should be addressed by that Department.

The Department of Health is supportive of any policy which ensures that healthcare staff are appropriately compensated for work which is commensurate with their skills, qualifications and experience. However, it should also be noted that privately owned and operated businesses, of which private nursing homes are included, are responsible for setting and managing their own rates of pay.

The sustainability of the Nursing Home sector in Ireland is an important priority for this Government and unprecedented levels of funding; investment and support has been provided over the last number of years to stabilise the sector.

The overall budget has increased from €986m in 2020 to €1.161bn in 2024. It is anticipated that the trend of allocating increased funding to the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (NHSS) will continue in the forthcoming budget.

In addition, the Government has provided the private and voluntary nursing home sector, with over €151 million in funding delivered through the Temporary Assistance Payment Scheme (TAPS) over the course of the Covid pandemic, which was extended to the end of April 2023.

Other supports directly delivered through the HSE include serial testing, the provision of PPE and deployment of expert response teams. The provision of free PPE and oxygen to private nursing homes continues, and cost €77 million from 1 April 2020 to 31 October 2022.

A €10 million scheme (TIPS) was established to support private and voluntary nursing homes with increases in energy costs. The scheme covers 75% of year-on-year cost increases in energy and heating, up to a monthly cap of €5,250 per nursing home, over the period of July to December 2022. TIPS was extended further, to June 2023.

Budget 2023 saw over €40 million in additional funding for the NHSS which is providing for an uplift in the maximum prices chargeable by private and voluntary nursing homes, as negotiated. An additional €45.6 million has been allocated to support nursing homes in Budget 2024.

This was including a new €10 million fund to support private and voluntary nursing homes with HIQA compliance. The scheme is designed to target and support structural improvements in nursing homes to assist their meeting HIQA compliance plans in respect of protection against infection and fire precautions. This is active as from 1 January 2024 and can be backdated for eligible works to 1 January 2020.

In addition, I recently announced the completion of the national rollout of a new community based mobile X-ray service which aims to reduce the number of older patients attending Emergency Departments (EDs). Following a pilot launched in 2022, from 1 March 2024 this free, community-based service is available to all residents in private and voluntary nursing homes and Community Nursing Units nationwide.

The budget to support approximately 23,000 people to live in nursing homes through Fair Deal, inclusive of client contributions, is approximately €1.5 billion this year.

In late February, it was announced that over €3.2 million in State support will be provided for over 440 registered nurses in private nursing homes to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma in Gerontological Nursing. This follows similar funding provided for registered nurses in public Community Nursing Units and voluntary nursing homes.

Maximum prices for individual nursing homes are agreed with the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) following negotiations and based on its cost criteria. These criteria include: costs reasonably incurred by the nursing home, local market prices, historic prices and the available budget. The NTPF has statutory independence in this regard, and neither Ministers nor the Department of Health has any role in NHSS price negotiations.

The Department of Health and I have met with the NTPF Board several times to discuss ways in which to support the sector, where necessary and appropriate, to complement the normal process of negotiating rate increases when contracts are renewed.

Nevertheless, nursing homes which had a scheduled renegotiation of their Deed of Agreement recently with the NTPF have seen a significant uplift (an average baseline increase in price per bed of 6%).

I wish to note that the NTPF have no role in provision of funding for public beds within private Nursing Homes.

In the last two years, there has been an increase in Nursing Homes moving to a 12-month duration of their deeds of agreement with the NTPF.

In a 30 month period (March 2022 - July 2024), the average increase in the maximum rates a nursing home can charge for NHSS has increased approx. 12% or €122 per resident per week.

The Department of Health is also examining ways in which additional supports can be provided to the sector.