Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 March 2015
440. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Health the steps being taken to ensure the nursing homes support scheme or fair deal scheme are able to process applications as quickly as possible to ensure persons requiring residential care are able to transfer from acute hospitals as soon as practicable. [10451/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe budget for the Nursing Homes Support Scheme in 2015 is €948.8m which reflects an increase of €10m from the 2014 position. The additional €10m was allocated to the Scheme as part of a wider initiative to alleviate the problem of delayed discharges in acute hospitals and has resulted in 300 extra approvals under the Scheme. This additional €10m has reduced the wait time for funding under the Scheme from circa 15 weeks late in 2014 to 11 weeks now.
The HSE operates a national placement list for the Scheme to enable it to operate within budget. All applicants who are approved for funding are put on the placement list in chronological order by the date of determination of their application, and funding issues to applicants in this chronological order to ensure equity nationally. Funding is released by the HSE on a weekly basis to balance the position across the full year.
