Nora Owen
Question:123 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Health and Children the average length of time contract beds in private nursing homes are left vacant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19184/01]
Written Answers. - Nursing Home Beds.
As the Deputy is aware, a health board may pay more than the maximum rate of subvention relative to an individual's level of dependency, for example in cases where personal funds are exhausted. Articles 22.3 and 22.4 of the Nursing Home (Subvention) Regulations, 1993, permit health boards to contract beds in private nursing homes and to pay more than the maximum rates of subvention in such cases. The application of these provisions is a matter for the health board concerned in the context of meeting increasing demands for subventions within the board's revenue allocation as notified annually in the letters of determination. This is in keeping with the provisions of the Health (Amendment) ( No. 3) Act, 1996.
I am advised by the health boards that the information requested by the Deputy is as follows:
The ERHA has advised that nursing home contract beds are allocated to the acute hospitals as soon as they become vacant. The length of time it takes for the hospitals to fill these beds varies from 24 hours to a fortnight depending on why patients are currently in the hospital and whether the contract bed is suitable for any of their current patients. If they have no suitable patients at a given time the bed is returned to the nursing homes section and it will be allocated to either another acute hospital or to somebody on the contract bed waiting list.
I am advised by the North-Western Health Board that occasionally contract beds may be vacant for up to a maximum of two weeks. The board advises that this may be for a number of reasons including nobody wishing to avail of the bed at the time; it may not be the choice of an individual to go to a particular nursing home, that is the home may not be near an individual's family; or seasonal factors when demand fluctuates, that is higher demand in winter months.
The Southern Health Board and the South-Eastern Health Board have advised that as contract beds are assigned on a case by case basis, they are not left vacant. The North-Eastern Health Board has also advised that contract beds are not left vacant.
Apart from beds contracted as part of the winter initiative which ended on 31 March, the Midland Health Board, the Mid-Western Health Board and the Western Health Board have no contract beds.