Caring for elderly at home a priority
The PD leader said that almost three out of 10 existing nursing home residents could be treated at home because they did not require full-time care.
Announcing details of the package in Dublin yesterday, the Tánaiste said: “This will mean a major improvement in home and community-based support for older people.”
The plan, which will provide pensioners with a flexible choice of health services, will enable them to obtain care in their own home for “as long as possible”, Ms Harney said.
She said research had shown that most people would prefer to receive treatment at home, while such patients usually enjoyed a better quality of life and lived on average two years longer.
She also announced that Government approval for legislation to allow repayments to people charged illegally for nursing home care would be sought before Christmas. The Government has earmarked €400m to meet claims from patients and their relatives who had to fund their own care in nursing homes.
A total of €55m of the new funding programme will be devoted to home care support packages to be provided by the Health Service Executive (HSE) through nurses, home care attendants and therapists.
Ms Harney said the number of home care packages would increase by 1,100 this year to 3,100 by 2007, although many more patients than this figure will benefit from the expansion of services.
Other spending measures include:
* €33m extra for home help
* €9m extra for day/respite care centres
* €9m extra for specialist palliative care
* €5m for “meals on wheels” service
* €1m for sheltered housing accommodation
The Tánaiste also committed €2m towards tackling the problem of abuse of the elderly, while an additional €20m is being allocated to the subvention scheme for residents of private nursing homes.
She said the HSE was already sourcing 200 extra beds in Dublin and 50 in Cork from private nursing homes.
Fine Gael health spokesperson Liam Twomey said the budget allocation for the elderly was “underwhelming and a disappointing first step after four years of Government neglect”.
The Irish Council for Social Housing criticised the allocation of funding for sheltered accommodation as “paltry”. Executive director Donal McManus said it was clear Ms Harney preferred to reward private sector nursing homes rather than non-profit community services who were saving the State some money.
