Funding for elderly people in care ‘is inequitable’

THE funding system for elderly people in care is inequitable and unjust, the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation (INHO) said yesterday.

The INHO accused the Government of presiding over the unfair treatment of pensioners with many being discriminated against on the basis of where they live.

It said the level of State funding for patients varies in different areas and claimed there were huge variations in the way the rules are applied in regions of the HSE.

At the organisation’s annual conference in Dublin, chairman Paul Costello highlighted inadequacies and inequities in the system of subvention payments to nursing home residents.

He claimed the new Health (Nursing Home Amendment) Bill was shambolic.

“Clearly there is no logic to this perverse system, and there is certainly no justice in it,” Mr Costello said.

And he asked: “Why can’t we have a system where every nursing home resident in the country is subject to the same means test, is entitled to a uniform level of subvention and can be guaranteed the same standard of care?”

The INHO said currently enhanced subvention payments are made at the discretion of each individual HSE regional office.

It called for a standardisation of the system that would clearly set out the rights and entitlements of older people.