Vol. 568 No. 1
541 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding the situation whereby up to 500 nursing home beds are vacant in the greater Dublin area and are available to alleviate overcrowding in the public hospital sector at a more economical cost, as reported by the Federation of Irish Nursing Homes in a publication (details supplied). [15491/03]
As the Deputy will be aware, the provision of health services in the Dublin area is the responsibility of the Eastern Regional Health Authority.
The three area health boards within the ERHA currently utilise a range of beds within the private sector, either through partial or full subvention of the cost. As of the end of April 2003, the area health boards subvented 3,006 people in private-voluntary beds. At the same time the number of registered nursing home beds in the region were as follows: private – 3,054, voluntary – 1,670. The cost of the subvention scheme to the area health boards for this period was €20.8 million. The full year cost in 2003 will be in the region of €62.4 million. It is important to note that there is a statutory obligation on health boards to remain within their funding allocation. The authority will be consulting with the private nursing homes over the next few months to explore in further detail, opportunities for rehabilitation and convalescence within this sector.
With reference to the cost of a private nursing home bed compared to the cost of a long-stay bed in a public facility, I should point out that not all the beds available in private nursing homes may be suitable for patients because of their location or because the nursing home may not be in a position to meet the nursing and care needs of particular patients. In addition, public long-stay facilities often provide a range of services to older people such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, chiropody, speech therapy, psychology services, social work services, public health nurse services and day care services. Not all of these services are available to older people in the private nursing home sector on a regular basis. Furthermore, the cost of medical input is not, to my knowledge, included in calculating the cost of a private nursing home bed while it would be a factor in the overall cost of a bed in a public extended care facility. Therefore, the cost comparisons are not on a like-for-like basis.
