Shortage of nursing homes to deal with surge in over-65s

GOVERNMENT expenditure is leaving Ireland drastically short of nursing home beds to cater for the explosion in over-65s expected within 20 years.

Labour party TD Seán Sherlock made the claim after submitting a parliamentary question to Health Minister Mary Harney asking about the number of long-term residents aged 65 and over in public and private nursing homes in the southern region.

In reply, Michael Fitzgerald of the Health Service Executive (HSE) said there were 450 registered private nursing homes, providing 20,000 residential care beds, of which 121 with 5,000 beds are located in HSE South.

“In addition, there are 56 public facilities in HSE South providing approximately 3,200 beds, in total of which around 2,500 are designated for long-term care with the others providing care related to convalescence, palliative, respite, dementia specific etc,” he said. “These public facilities include HSE-extended care units, as well as other units that are owned/managed by voluntary providers with substantial financial support being provided from the HSE. The majority of the 7,500 approximately long-term care beds in private and public nursing homes in HSE South are occupied by patients aged 65 years and over.”

Mr Fitzgerald said that Government policy recognised the implications of a projected 140% increase in the over-65 population (1.2m) by 2036.

“With this predicted growing population of older people in Ireland, there is an ongoing requirement to provide additional residential care places,” he said.

“In 2006, the Government responded to this need by taking the decision to provide funding for additional public residential units and beds throughout the country.

& “A €112m capital investment nationally will deliver 860 additional new, public long-stay beds and 214 replacement/refurbished beds by early 2010. Thirteen new community nursing units will be completed, of which four are located in HSE South, three in Cork and one in Tralee.”

However, Mr Sherlock said that the HSE appeared to be ill-equipped to deal with the changing demographic.

“As people are getting older there will be increasing demand for nursing home beds,” he said. “We need a public-private mix but we also need to ensure that future lands are zoned in a way that allows older people live in designated communities that allows them to downsize and live independently.”