The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has indicated that a number of public units do not fully meet the standards one would expect to find in a modern nursing home. This is not surprising given the age and structure of many of our public nursing homes. Compliance issues are in the main related to physical infrastructure and to issues such as personal space and privacy and access to toilet facilities. It is important to stress that the care provided to residents of these facilities is of a generally high standard.
Discussions are ongoing between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and HIQA in this context. Addressing these issues will require prioritisation across facilities within the overall resources that can be made available, and the Government's priority is to ensure that appropriate placements continue to be available for those who need them.
In Budget 2015, additional funding of €25m
was provided to support services that provide alternatives to, and relieve pressures on, acute hospitals. Of this €25m, €10m was used to provide an additional 300 places under the Nursing Homes Support Scheme. This reduced the waiting time for approved applicants from 17 weeks to 4 weeks. Up to €8m was used to provide access to an additional 115 short-stay beds across the Dublin area. Up to €5m was used to provide 400 additional Home Care Packages which will benefit 600 people in the course of the year, and €2m was used to expand the Community Intervention Team services in primary care across Dublin and the surrounding region.
In April 2015 the Government provided a further €74m to address issues that impact on delayed discharges. This amount built on the €25m provided earlier and was allocated as follows: €44m was allocated to the Nursing Homes Support Scheme to provide an additional 1,600 places and to further reduce waiting times for approved applicants from 11 to 4 weeks; the remaining €30m was principally applied to provide additional transitional beds, some of which were on a temporary basis to address the particular pressures then being experienced by acute hospitals.
The Department of Health and the HSE will continue to deploy the mix of available resources to provide the services and supports that meet the needs and wishes of older people as effectively as possible.
