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FAMILIES OF RESIDENTS at a Cork nursing home that has ended its Fair Deal contract are calling for the HSE to intervene, as there are fears that other nursing homes are set to exit the scheme.
The Journal understands that several nursing homes are now considering leaving the Fair Deal scheme (FDS), as there are widespread frustrations with the National Treatment Purchase Fund’s (NTPF) approach to agreeing rates.
On Monday, CareChoice, a company that runs 14 nursing homes in Ireland and is owned by a French investment fund, announced that Beaumont Residential Care in Cork has officially withdrawn from the FDS, just a few hours after families protested outside of the Tánaiste’s office.
The families of 56 residents who live at the home under the FDS now have until the end of June to try and find somewhere else, or start paying full private fees.
Stuart Murphy, the CEO of CareChoice, said that the decision to pull the home out of the FDS came after months of failed negotiations with the NTPF.
He claimed that Beaumont is receiving less money per patient from the HSE than other nursing homes in Cork. He further claimed that the home gets €1,085 per resident per week, but each patient costs them €1,270 on average.
When asked if the NTPF has engaged with CareChoice since Beaumont left the FDS, the Department of Health said that the Minister cannot comment on specific negotiations.
Nina Olden’s mother Sheila Healy is turning 96 next month.
She has lived in Beaumont for the last two years. The other residents have become her friends, and so have the staff.
“It’s her home now, she loves being there. She tells my brother and I that we should get on a list to go there when we are older too. At her age, moving to another home – if we could even find one – would be dreadful.
“She is and always has been a fantastic mum. It is very stressful to not know what is going to happen, if she could end up in a public hospital bed, or having to move further away from us,” Nina said.
Nina and her family have chosen not to tell Sheila about what is happening at the home.
“She would be able to understand it, but I don’t think she would be able to cope. I’m afraid of what the stress would do to her.
“My mum is 96, she is a wheelchair user, and she needs 24/7 care. To make her leave her home would be unthinkably cruel,” she said.
Nina is sympathetic towards CareChoice, and believes that the company has left the FDS as a last resort.
“We know that they have asked the NTPF and the HSE to negotiate with them time and time again in the last year and couldn’t even get a meeting.
“I think that they are not being given enough money under the scheme to maintain the quality of care that they aim for. In the public system homes have a budget of €1,800 per week. Beaumont, from what we have been told, is getting around €700 less than that,” she said.
“It seems like the NTPF is not doing its job,” she said.
“The staff are being torn apart by this too. They are so dedicated. I was visiting this week and I saw a nurse in the corridor, giving her patient a hug. It was emotional,” Nina added.
Sean, Nina’s husband, said that he doesn’t understand why the NTPF and the HSE “won’t pay the proper rate” to Beaumont.
“It will cost the State more to rehome these 56 people in public care settings. We are not going to let that happen without a fight. We will be protesting at the offices of Simon Coveney and Michael McGrath on Friday,” he said.
A report published by PwC today revealed that in Ireland 31 nursing homes have closed in the last three years.
The report found that homes have seen a 36% increase in additional costs since 2017, while getting “marginal increases” in weekly FDS rates.
PwC said that overall, 33% of the nursing homes they surveyed reported operating at a loss.
Tadhg Daly, the CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI), said that the HSE and the Government now needs to “come to the table” and talk to residential care providers in order to prevent other nursing homes “inevitably”exiting from the FDS.
“The pricing mechanism being used by the NTPF is broken.
“There can be slight variations in costs, but not to an extent that would justify the variation in rates we are seeing,” he said.
Daly said that the consequences of Government and HSE inaction will be “horrific” for residents and their families.
David Cullinane, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for health, said that he is concerned by the rate of nursing home closures, specifically when it comes to smaller, family run homes, and the stress this is causing to residents and their families.
“It is clear that staffing is one of the key issues here. There is a clear difference between what public and private providers pay healthcare assistants” he said, adding that further funding for private nursing homes should be contingent on a collective pay agreement for their staff.
Cullinane said that the Government also needs to “protect the taxpayer” when it comes to negotiating with private providers.
“We need to build public nursing home capacity, but our reliance on the private sector is not going to end anytime soon,” he added.
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Should be sanctioned just like Russia.
Occupation breeds resistance
Ireland
Palestine
Ukraine
@Liam Ó hAodha: Ireland isn’t occupied anymore though
@Ciaran: spoken like a true southerner.
@Brian MacCarthaigh: a true partitionist more like. They are a minority in south but highly vocal.
@Liam Ó hAodha: it only in Ukraine that resistance fighters are hailed. In Ireland and Palestine they are “ terrorists”.
@M Bowe: bombing civilians is pretty much terrorism in anyones book ..
@Ciaran:
Wow! Does your ignorance knows any bounds
@M Bowe: Provo criminals and Hamas are terrorists, only a few days ago marked the 50th Anniversary of one of the darkest days of the Troubles, when in a barbaric spree of hate & sectarianism, the Provos detonated 22 bombs inside 75 minutes, murdering 9 innocent people and injuring 130 more. Pure terrorism.
@Ciaran: and I’d say you think the Old IRA who freed this country are heroes. I think they were by the way. But how were they any better than the Provos?
@Sumsoar Khan: military targets v civilian targets. The provos always say it was a war. Ok if it’s considered a war then bombing civilians is a war crime. Puts them at the same level as isis and Russia right now..
@M Bowe: you’re massively mistaken if you think we are in the minority. Their are a lot of us that would rather it stay the same, than have to deal with the mess that would be left if the brits release control of the 6 counties. You lads think it’s going to be a great party when the day comes. Thousands up north will fight till their last breath before their will be peace. And this time it won’t be a conflict that will limit itself to the 6 counties.
@Ciaran: Name a conflict/war in which civilian populations weren’t bombed intentionally or unintentionally?
War is savage and brutal but mostly started by a select few international land grabbers
@Liam Ó hAodha: of course , bombs at shopping centres and highly populated civilian centres where there are no military targets or “the enemy” completely justified then…f00l
@M Bowe: let’s call a spade a spade and call it for it is. If you deliberately target civilians as the IRA did then that is terrorism.
hamas and the IRA fit that description.
@Martin O Connell: the people of the north and the Republic of Ireland had a vote. It’s called the good Friday agreement where the majority of the north wanted to stay with the uk until such time they want to join the south.
@Stephen Kearon:
Hamas is the democratically elected government in Gaza.
It was only designated as “terrorist” by Apartheid Israel after it won the election.
The terrorists are thrisraeli government and its henchmen.
@Stephen Kearon: your opinions are as relevant as my last fart,and that dissipated hours ago.
@Martin O Connell: so you are gonna stay on your knees in face of unionist/ British threats of immediate and terrible war, the same terrorist threat which gave birth to that failed sectarian state 100 years ago.
@Alan Richard Scott Jr.: as British did in Ballymurphy and Derry in previous 10 months of Black Friday. No one side of any war can claim the moral high ground on actions.
@M Bowe: I’m not on my knees to anyone. Thanks to Michael Collins and all that negotiated the treaty, I never will be on my knees.
@M Bowe: your last fart probably came out your mouth.
In context could you imagine the SAS going into Dublin to arrest “suspected terrorist’s” and murdering 2 people. It’s wrong ,it’s illegal and they should be sanctioned by the rest of the world.
Typical.
have your say