State turns the screw on private nursing homes

ON behalf of Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) members, I would like to echo the concerns expressed by the Board of Cobh Community Hospital in your report headlined ‘Friends of Cobh hospital plead to keep it open’ (July 16).

What we have seen take place is that the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has negotiated rates that fail to value private and voluntary nursing home care at the same level as public nursing home care.

This despite the fact that the care provided by private and voluntary nursing homes matches that of public facilities.

The state is also the largest purchaser of beds in the private sector. And the harsh reality is that it wants to purchase care from the private sector at significantly less than what it costs the state to provide care itself.

NHI believes the state cannot have it both ways – looking for higher standards throughout the nursing home sector while bargain-hunting for beds at the same time, with the inevitable consequence of driving down care standards.

What has taken place in Cobh Community Hospital is a pattern of price negotiation that has been repeated elsewhere around the country.

We too would urge the Minister for Health to intervene to ensure that fee rates negotiated with the private and voluntary sector acknowledge the costs associated with the high standard of care which NHI members provide.

It is clear from feedback from our members that they are deeply unhappy with the approach taken by the National Treatment Purchase Fund which seems to have learned nothing from what happened in the past when price was prioritised over people.

Tadhg Daly

Chief Executive Nursing Homes Ireland

Unit A5

Centrepoint Business Park

Oak Road

Dublin 12