People ‘forced to pay for private nursing homes’

FAMILIES of older people are being forced to spend money on private nursing homes because of the Department of Health’s push to calm the A&E crisis, experts claimed yesterday.

The lack of places at the country’s public nursing homes has meant that social workers are under pressure to direct older people, who have been discharged from hospital, into the private sector.

A public nursing home bed costs €120 per week, four-fifths of an old age pension, while families have to pay several hundred euro extra per week for a private nursing home place. Often, these people are entitled to a public bed but can’t access them due to lack of availability.